KSE-100 loses over 500 points in pre-budget session
Pakistan Stock Exchange received a battering on Friday ahead of the presentation of federal budget for FY21. The benchmark KSE-100 index snapped its five-day winning streak as the market faced panic selling and lost a significant 517 points to below 35,000-point mark. Slump in global crude oil prices and sell-off in world equities weighed on investors’ sentiment. Furthermore, concern over the budget announcement later in the day pushed investors to offload their stockholdings across the board. At the beginning of trading, the market dived and the index sank to intra-day low of over 600 points with investors fearing further downslide. At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 517.35 points, or 1.47 percent, to settle at 34,611.23. Overall, trading volumes decreased to 177.9 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 270.6 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.31 billion. Shares of 336 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 77 stocks closed higher, 235 declined and 24 remained unchanged.
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France stocks higher at end of trade; cac 40 up 0.49pc
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 rose 0.49 percent, while the SBF 120 index added 0.53 percent. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Paris Stock Exchange by 317 to 268 and 86 ended unchanged. The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 11.34 percent to 38.40 a new 1-month high. Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.09 percent or 1.60 to $1738.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.30 percent or 0.11 to hit $36.45 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 1.09 percent or 0.42 to trade at $38.97 a barrel. EUR/USD was down 0.55 percent to 1.1235, while EUR/GBP rose 0.33 percent to 0.8992. The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.56 percent at 97.280.
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FTSE 100 inches into green despite record plunge in uk GDP
The FTSE 100 closed 0.23 per cent up on Friday, having spent most of the session inching higher despite data showing the British economy suffered the largest contraction on record in April. While the blue-chip managed to shake a four-session decline, it remained on track for its worst weekly drop in around three months. Cyclical stocks including bankers and insurers, which had been at the centre of Thursday’s sell-off, led the FTSE 100’s gains. Wall Street’s main indices rebounded on Friday, recouping around half of the previous session’s sharp losses, but were still on track for their worst week in almost three months as concerns over new coronavirus infections weighed on investor sentiment. The FTSE 100 inched higher in a volatile session after data showed the UK economy suffered a record contraction in April. After dropping sharply following the open then hovering close to flat in early trading, the blue-chip index climbed steadily for most of the afternoon before reversing most of the day’s gains, ending the session 0.23 per cent up. The shaky performance follows yesterday’s hefty correction, which saw the index suffer its largest drop since March with a fall of 3.99 per cent.
The FTSE 100 remained steady after the government “formally” confirmed that it will not extend the post-Brexit transition period beyond the end of 2020.
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S&P 500 top movers: AAL surges nearly 15pc
The S&P 500 (SPX) lost nearly 6 percent during Thursday’s selloff but staged a rebound on Friday. However, the index failed to preserve its bullish momentum and erased a large portion of its daily gains after opening more than 2.5 percent higher. At the moment, the SPX is still up 0.42 percent on the day at 3,015 points. Earlier in the day, American Airlines Group Inc (AAL) announced that it’s planning to halt its daily char burn by the end of 2020, citing an improvement in travel demand and effective cost-cutting measures. Boosted by this development, AAL is up 14.4 percent on the as the top performer and was last seen trading at $16.35.
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Nikkei 225: is this the end of Japan stocks vicious rally?
The Nikkei 225 index declined sharply today as investors reacted to the selloff in Wall Street on Friday. The index declined by more than 1 percent, with most companies in the index being in the red. While all sectors were affected, the worst performers were marine transportation, mining, and nonferrous metals. The Nikkei 225 index decline was mostly because of the change of outlook of the global economy. In a statement on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve warned that the US economy would go through a prolonged period of weak growth due to the virus. For this reason, the bank decided to leave interest rates unchanged and continue with the aggressive quantitative easing program. Meanwhile, investors in Japan stocks are concerned about a new wave of coronavirus outbreak especially in the United States. The main issue is that the recent protests have exposed thousands of people to the virus. While many people wore masks at the protests, the concern is that these masks did not protect them enough. Experts believe that the virus can be transmitted through the eyes.
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SENSEX, NIFTY fall 2pc tracking worldwide markets as COVID-19 fears resurface
Domestic stock markets registered sharp losses in early trade on Friday amid rising cases of the COVID-19 disease, as global equities tumbled over growing concerns that a resurgence of infections could stunt the pace of reopening economies. The S&P BSE Sensex index fell as much as 3.55 per cent – or 1,190.27 points – to hit 32,348.10, having started the session down 1,101.68 points at 32,436.69. The broader NSE Nifty 50 benchmark dropped to as low as 9,544.35, after opening down 3 per cent at 9,544.95. A selloff across sectors – led by financial stocks, especially state-run banks – weighed on the benchmark indices.