Benchmark KSE-100 index falls 105.14 points to settle at 41,701.23
In line with the performance during the week, the stock market once again slipped into the red zone in range-bound trading on Friday and lost about 100 points. The benchmark KSE-100 index opened downwards and despite brief spikes, it continued its march towards south. Persistent selling pressure pushed the index downwards. At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 105.14 points, or 0.25 percent, to settle at 41,701.23 points. Oil and gas marketing companies led the volumes with 64.1 million shares changing hands, followed by vanaspati firms (47.5 million) and refineries (43.6 million).
Overall, trading volumes edged up to 435 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 434.9 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs15.4 billion. Shares of 411 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 161 stocks closed higher, 232 declined and 18 remained unchanged. Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 57.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.83 to close at Rs21.91. It was followed by Unity Foods with 47.5 million shares, losing Rs0.08 to close at Rs17.96 and Byco Petroleum with 28.4 million shares, gaining Re1 to close at Rs11.01.
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US technology stocks end higher
Technology stocks again rode to Wall Street’s rescue on Friday, lifting the main indexes more than 1%, but the Dow and the S&P 500 still posted their longest weekly losing streaks in a year as fears of a slowing economy sparked an almost month-long rout.
Investors started buying beaten-down shares after the Nasdaq confirmed a corrective phase earlier this month and the S&P 500 on an intra-day basis briefly broke that barrier this week.
Both the Dow and S&P 500 notched their fourth straight weekly declines, the longest weekly losing streak since August 2019. The Nasdaq closed higher for the week after falling the previous three, and is now up 22% for the year. The S&P 500 is up a bit more than 2% for the year.
Shares of tech mega-caps Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc led the way, followed by Nvidia Corp and Facebook Inc, rising at least 2.1%.
The CBOE Market Volatility Index, known as Wall’s fear gauge, fell 7.68%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 358.52 points, or 1.34%, to 27,173.96. The S&P 500 gained 51.87 points, or 1.60%, to 3,298.46 and the Nasdaq Composite added 241.30 points, or 2.26%, to 10,913.56.
For the week, the Dow unofficially fell 1.74%, the S&P 500 slid 0.63%, and the Nasdaq gained 1.1%. Volume on US exchanges was 8.89 billion shares
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FTSE 100 closes in positive territory but still below 6,000
FTSE 100 index closed with its nose above water but still below 6,000 on Friday after seeing red earlier in the session and following a week of selling. Britain’s blue-chip benchmark finished up nearly 20 points, or 0.34 percent, at 5,842. Fellow European indices, however, plunged into the red due to pandemic fears as there were a record number of cases reported in the Netherlands and France. Over the week as a whole, FTSE shed around 2.7 percent. The analyst notes that the suspicion is the sell-off in US stocks, which has been occurring for weeks, may be coming to an end.
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European stocks post worst week since June
European stocks recorded their worst weekly decline since mid-June on Friday, as investors feared that a second wave of coronavirus infections will hamper economic recovery, while banking stocks sank to an all-time low.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index slipped 0.1%, failing to match Wall Street gains on signs that US lawmakers were making progress on a $2.2 trillion stimulus package that could be voted on next week.
The index shed 3.6% in a week dominated by concerns about new coronavirus restrictions in Europe, a faltering stock rally in Wall Street’s technology giants and worrying economic data from both sides of the Atlantic.
European banks sank to a fresh record low as investors shunned the sector hit by a cocktail of lower global borrowing costs, rising bad loans due to the economic downturn and dirty money scandal that made it the worst performer this week.
British betting firm William Hill surged 43.5% after revealing that it had received rival takeover proposals from buyout firm Apollo and US casino operator Caesars Entertainment.
British Airways-owner IAG, Lufthansa and Air France KLM down between 0.6% and 3.3%.
Automakers fell 1.4% after an industry body said British car production fell by an annual 45% in August, as the sector continues to suffer due to the fallout from the virus outbreak.
Paris Match publisher Lagardere surged 32.3% after billionaire Bernard Arnault revealed he had built up a direct stake in the firm, which is under siege from several other investors. Swedish home appliance maker Electrolux rose 2.9%.
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China’s indexes little changed
China’s major indexes ended little changed on Friday, but posted their worst weekly decline since mid-July as a resurgence in COVID-19 cases globally raised concerns about the pace of economic recovery.
The blue-chip CSI300 index rose 0.2%, to 4,570.02, while the Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.1%to 3,219.42. For the week, the CSI300 shed 3.5%, while SSEC lost 3.6%, both logging their steepest weekly declines since the week ended July 17. The tech-heavy start-up board ChiNext gained 0.2% on Friday, while the STAR50 index retreated 2.2%. They fell 2.1% and 2.8% for the week, respectively.
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India’s Sensex gains over 400 points
Indian stock markets rose more than 1 percent in early trade on Friday tracking gains in Asian equities, in a rebound a day after benchmark indices S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 hit two-month closing lows. The Sensex rose 438.29 points to touch 36,991.89 at the strongest level of the day, and the Nifty climbed to as high as 10,935.30, up 129.75 points from its previous close. Gains across sectors – led by auto, pharmaceutical, automobile and metal stocks – pushed the markets higher. The Sensex traded 412.45 points – or 1.13 percent – higher at 36,966.05, while the Nifty was up 116.35 points – or 1.08 percent – at 10,921.90. Market breadth was highly positive with an advance-decline ratio of 4:1, as 1,222 stocks on the BSE traded higher against 306 that succumbed to losses. On the NSE, 1,312 stocks advanced while 290 declined.