Pakistan stocks extend winning run
Pakistan’s stock market continued to enjoy a bull run on Friday with the KSE-100 Index climbing another 697.29 points or 1.66percent to settle at 42,786.45, as investors cheered the outcome of the country’s 11th general elections.
The winning streak, which started on Tuesday, has now stretched across three sessions, cumulatively adding 5.74 percent to the index that bore the brunt of political as well as economic turbulence in the past few months ahead of the elections.
On Friday, stocks continued their winning run with index-heavy cement, steel, banks as well as oil and gas sectors attracting investor attention. Overall, trading volumes increased to a healthy 385.5 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 254 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs14 billion.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
US major indexes remain down
Wall Street’s major indexes fell on Friday as weak earnings reports from major technology companies led to a big drop for the sector.
Intel Corp shares sank 8.6 percent after the chipmaker’s data center business missed estimates amid stiff rivalry from Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD shares rose 3.2 percent.
Twitter Inc shares plunged 20.5 percent after the social media network reported a decline in monthly active users, versus the increase analysts had expected, and warned of further drops as it deletes phony accounts.
The S&P 500 technology index fell 2.0 percent, the most among the major S&P sectors. Shares of Apple Inc, which is set to report quarterly results on Tuesday, fell 1.7 percent. Shares of Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc, which had soared after both companies recently reported strong quarterly results, dropped 1.8 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively. Alphabet shares touched an all-time high earlier in the session but reversed course.
The pressure on tech stocks started on Thursday after Facebook Inc gave a dismal forecast that caught investors off guard about growth prospects in a sector that has led the market’s march toward record highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 76.01 points, or 0.3 percent, to 25,451.06, the S&P 500 lost 18.62 points, or 0.66 percent, to 2,818.82 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 114.77 points, or 1.46 percent, to 7,737.42.
For the week, the Nasdaq shed 1.06 percent, but the S&P rose 0.61 percent. The Dow, cushioned by promising developments in trade relations between the United States and the European Union earlier this week, added 1.57 percent.
Intel and Twitter’s disappointing results overshadowed data from the Commerce Department showing the US economy grew at a 4.1 percent annualized rate in the second quarter, its fastest pace in nearly four years, on higher consumer spending and farmers rushing soybean shipments to China to beat tariffs.
Amazon.com Inc shares jumped as much as 4 percent to a record high of $1,880.05 after the e-commerce giant forecast strong sales and posted a profit that was double analysts’ estimates. Amazon shares closed up 0.5 percent.
Volume on US exchanges was 6.81 billion shares, compared with the 6.04 billion average over the last 20 trading days.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
[ads1]
India’s Sensex logs new all-time high
Indian stock markets (Sensex and Nifty) surged to record highs on deals with BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty finishing at all-time highs following the sharp rally in the shares of ITC, RIL, ICICI Bank, HDFC, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank.
Both the key indices Sensex and Nifty edged higher in the late trade on the sustained upsurge in the shares of ITC, RIL, HDFC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank. The markets traded higher in the afternoon deals on Friday holding the early gains with BSE Sensex flirting with 37,300 and NSE Nifty hitting fresh all-time high following the uptick in ITC coupled with a rally in RIL and HDFC Bank shares.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
China stocks down, Hong Kong stocks flat
Hong Kong stocks ended on Friday flat as investors digested results from American tech titans and waited for the release of US growth data. The Hang Seng Index edged up 0.08 percent, or 23.14 points, to 28,804.28.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gave up 0.30 percent, or 8.64 points, to 2,873.59, while the Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China’s second exchange, fell 0.66 percent, or 10.65 points, to 1,599.08.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Tokyo stocks close higher
Tokyo stocks gained Friday on a weaker yen, while investors looked ahead to US GDP data later in the day and the Bank of Japan’s policy meeting next week.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.56 percent or 125.88 points to close at 22,712.75, while the broader Topix index was up 0.57 percent or 9.98 points to 1,775.76.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Sri Lanka stocks lower
Sri Lanka stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Information Technology, Construction & Engineering and Diversified Holdings sectors led shares lower. At the close in Colombo, the CSE All-Share fell 0.14 percent.
The best performers of the session on the CSE All-Share were Adam Investments Ltd, which rose 50.00 percent or 0.100 points to trade at 0.300 at the close. Meanwhile, SMB Leasing PLC added 25.00 percent or 0.1000 points to end at 0.5000 and Serendib Land PLC was up 25.00 percent or 370.40 points to 1852.10 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Singhe Hospitals Ltd, which fell 6.67 percent or 0.100 points to trade at 1.400 at the close. Sunshine Holdings PLC declined 5.41 percent or 3.00 points to end at 52.50 and Kotagala Plantations PLC was down 4.49 percent or 0.40 points to 8.50.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Asian stocks mixed ahead of US growth data
Asian stocks were mixed Friday as investors digested results from American tech titans and waited for the release of US data expected to show a surge in economic growth. US markets were dragged down Thursday after Facebook warned of weaker growth, sending its shares falling nearly 20 percent and wiping out some $100 billion in market value. But the stock market gloom was lifted slightly after Amazon delivered better-than-expected profits. The online colossus’ net profit in the past quarter jumped 12-fold to $2.5 billion on the back of gains made from its rapid global expansion. Tokyo was up 0.2 percent in morning trade, while Sydney rose 0.9 percent after a deal between mining giant BHP and BP lifted the vital mining sector. Shanghai retreated 0.2 percent, Hong Kong lost 0.3 percent, and Seoul was little changed.