S&P 500’s biggest one-day gain since 2008
The S&P 500 on Friday notched up one of its biggest one-day gains on record, capping off a volatile week for stocks that had seen elevated fears around the spread of the coronavirus and a plunge in the price of crude oil. Wall Street’s equities benchmark soared 9.5 percent, with much of the advance coming late in the session after US president Donald Trump declared coronavirus a national emergency and laid out plans to help deal with the outbreak. The rise was the S&P 500’s biggest since October 2008, or the 10th largest since 1928, and followed a 9.5 percent plunge on Thursday that was the index’s biggest one-day drop since Black Monday in October 1987. Declines since the February 19 peak have been trimmed to whisker under 20 percent, meaning the S&P 500 pulled itself out of a bear market just one session after falling through that threshold level in a move that punctured an 11-year bull run. The 16-session drop into a bear market on Thursday was the quickest such trip in the S&P 500’s history. Friday’s rise trimmed this week’s decline to 8.8 percent, which still ranks as one of the steepest weekly drops since the end of the Second World War.
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Nikkei logs biggest point fall in 30 yrs amid worsening virus fears
Tokyo stocks plummeted Friday on escalating fears about the coronavirus outbreak, with the Nikkei index finishing at its lowest level in over three years after briefly posting the biggest point fall in nearly three decades as global markets were routed. The index lost over 10 percent or 1,869.03 points at one point, the largest intraday point drop since April 1990 when Japan saw emerging signs of the bursting of the asset-inflated bubble economy. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended down 1,128.58 points, or 6.08 percent, from Thursday at 17,431.05, its lowest close since Nov. 11, 2016. The index lost 3,318.7 points over the five days through Friday, its largest-ever weekly fall.
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KSE-100 recoups massive loss, gains 104 points
In line with the trend in the preceding trading session, the stock market continued to bleed in the first session on Friday as the index slumped over 1,600 points. Bears maintained firm control over the stock market and investors continued to book profits, following a crash in financial markets across the world amid deepening coronavirus fears. At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 104.19 points, or 0.29 percent, to settle at 36,060.88. Overall, trading volumes increased to 290.5 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 230.7 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs13.97 billion. Shares of 354 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 158 stocks closed higher, 182 declined and 14 remained unchanged. The Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 31.1 million shares, losing Rs0.10 to close at Rs10.10.
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France stocks higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 1.83pc
France stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Foods & Drugs, Gas & Water and General Financial sectors led shares higher. At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 1.83 percent, while the SBF 120 index added 1.56 percent. Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Paris Stock Exchange by 323 to 298 and 50 ended unchanged. The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 6.18 percent to 63.58 a new 5-year high.
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DAX index off to a bullish start; can it hold on to its gains?
The DAX Index is trading higher, buoyed by US futures. As of this writing, Germany’s stock index is up by over 1.20 percent or 106.300 points at 9,266.270. This reflects the performance in S&P 500 futures which are up around 100 points. Leading gains on the DAX Index is Wirecard which is up by 12.53 percent. With a week of heavy selling, we could be seeing some market exhaustion which could help explain the uptick in the DAX Index. If the ASX 200 is any indication, it could finish the day in the green. On the hourly time frame of DAX Index CFDs, it can be seen that the stock index has pared some of its losses. By drawing the Fibonacci retracement tool from the high of March 11 low, the DAX is testing the 38.2 percent Fib level.
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FTSE 100 crisis: every firm bar one’s share price cut –11pc drop biggest since black Monday
The blue-chip FTSE 100 has has suffered its biggest one-day fall since 1987’s Black Monday after plummeting 10.9 percent to 5237.48 as coronavirus fears gripped the market. It comes after the London market fell 6 percent, wiping £84 billion off the value of its constituents, in early trading after the World Health Organisation upgraded the coronavirus to a worldwide pandemic. London’s stock market fell past 2016 Brexit referendum lows as US President Donald Trump’s shock decision to introduce a ban on European travellers sent shares in already hard-pressed British Airways and other airlines down by almost another 10 percent. If it falls another 1.5 percent, the index will reach lows not seen since the height of the European debt crisis in 2012.
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Sensex ends 1,325 points higher, Nifty at 10,023; SBI, HDFC top gainers
In the biggest intra-day recovery during the coronavirus pandemic, equity market indices Sensex and Nifty gained over 5,000 points from day’s low and closed 4 percent higher by Friday’s closing bell. Amid high buying in the index heavyweights, BSE Sensex ended 1,325 points higher at 34,103 and Nifty closed 433 points higher at 10,023. Earlier, within minutes of the opening bell, Indian bourses halted trading for 45 minutes after both the benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty hit their 10 percent lower circuit limits. Weak sentiment on Dalal Street improved marginally after market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued a statement saying that it has a robust risk management framework in place which automatically gets triggered in response to movements in the indices.