Pakistan bourse drops 445 points as investors offload holdings
Bears dominated trading at the stock market on Friday and the KSE-100 index dropped 445 points as investors were concerned whether the market would sustain the 40,000-point level. Following a brief open in the positive, investors resorted to profit-booking, resulting in a decline of nearly 500 points in the KSE-100 index at the end of first session.
Volatility prevailed in the second session, following which the bourse went below 40,900 points by the day’s end. At the end of trading, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 445.4 points, or 1.08 percent, to settle at 40,887.35. Overall, trading volumes increased to 169.1 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 137.7 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8.56 billion. Shares of 336 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 81 stocks closed higher, 233 declined and 22 remained unchanged. K-Electric was the volume leader with 23.24 million shares, losing Rs0.11 to close at Rs6.38.
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Benchmark S&P, Nasdaq surge
The benchmark S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq edged upward to snap a two-day losing streak on Friday as positive corporate results offset lingering skepticism over the United States and China reaching a trade deal before the March 1 deadline.
Shares of Coty Inc, Mattel Inc and Motorola Solutions Inc jumped after the companies reported better-than-expected quarterly results.
In addition, shares of Electronic Arts Inc, which plunged on Wednesday after the company’s quarterly results, surged after the videogame publisher said that its game Apex Legends had attracted 10 million players in three days. Electronic Arts and Motorola Solutions were among the top boosts to the S&P 500.
Earlier, US stocks dragged as trade concerns continued to weigh on investor sentiment. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he did not plan to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping before the deadline set for reaching an agreement. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will travel to Beijing for principal-level meetings on Feb. 14-15, a statement from the White House said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 63.2 points, or 0.25 percent, to 25,106.33, the S&P 500 gained 1.83 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,707.88 and the Nasdaq Composite added 9.85 points, or 0.14 percent, to 7,298.20. For the week, the Dow added 0.17 percent, the S&P 500 rose 0.05 percent, and the Nasdaq gained 0.47 percent. Volume on US exchanges was 6.83 billion shares, compared to the 7.46 billion average over the last 20 trading days.
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Britain’s FTSE buckles under global growth worries
Following a short-lived recovery, London’s blue-chip shares gave in to pressure on Friday as jitters over the China-US trade dispute fed into fears of a slowdown in the world economy, with bank and energy shares the hardest hit.
The FTSE 100 index ended 0.3 percent lower and the FTSE 250 slipped 0.8 percent, extending losses from the last session when the Bank of England (BoE) slashed its economic growth forecasts amid Brexit uncertainty. Investors also fretted about the protracted US-China trade spat after news that US President Donald Trump did not plan to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping before a March 1 deadline set by the two countries to strike a trade deal. Luxury brand Burberry added 1.3 percent, boosted by French luxury handbag label Hermes’ results and comments that sales momentum in its Chinese stores stayed strong in the fourth quarter. The British payment company Earthport surged 16 percent as Visa put forward an increased buyout offer, topping a bid from Mastercard. Investors shunned bookmaker shares as horse racing was postponed in Britain until at least the middle of next week after an outbreak of equine influenza. GVC Holdings, William Hill, 888 Holdings and Playtech all dropped.
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India Sensex tanks over 400 points
Indian market remained under bear grip throughout the trading session on Friday and wiped out most of the gains made during the week. The S&P BSE Sensex finally closed 424 points, or 1.1 percent, lower while the Nifty50 ended 125 points down at 10,943. The S&P BSE Sensex closed 0.2 percent higher for the week ended February 8. In terms of sectors, metals, auto, PSU stocks led the decline while telecom and realty stocks bucked the trend.
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HK shares weakens on renewed trade anxiety
Hong Kong stocks ended weaker on Friday as the absence of any positive signs for a resolution in the US-China trade row dented sentiment, but the market pared losses as investors eyed support from A-shares, which will resume trading next week.
At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index was down 0.2 percent at 27,946.32 points, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises index fell 0.7 percent. Energy shares shed 1.4 percent as oil markets slipped on concerns over a global economic slowdown. But the IT sector ended 0.2 percent firmer, the financial sector closed up 0.1 percent and the property sector ended 0.3 percent higher.
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Nikkei 225 tumbles after hitting a downside line
The Nikkei 225 cash index traded lower on Friday, breaking below the support (now turned into resistance) barrier of 20420. The index entered a sliding mode this week after it tested the crossroads of the prior upside support line drawn from the low of March 23rd and the downside resistance line taken from the peak of October 1st.
The crossroads coincided with the 21000 key barrier, which provided strong resistance on January 18th and was also a decent support on December 10th. Having all that in mind, we would consider the near-term outlook to be negative for now. We believe that the break below 20420 may have opened the way towards the 19970 territory, marked by the lows of January 7th and 14th. If the bears are strong enough to overcome that zone, then we may see them adding to their positions, and perhaps driving the price towards the 19275 area, which is near the lows of January 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.
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Canada stocksdip amid Sino-US trade row
Futures for Canada’s main stock index edged lower on Friday, as trade tensions between the United States and China remained unresolved, slowing global economic growth. US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he did not plan to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a March 1 deadline set by the two countries to achieve a trade deal. March futures on the S&P/TSX index were down 0.19 percent at 6:55 a.m. ET. Employment data for January is due at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Toronto Stock Exchange S&P/TSX composite index closed down 8.95 points, or 0.06 percent, at 15,703.36.