KSE-100 rebounds with slight gain of 62 points
The Pakistan Stock Exchange staged a rebound in yet another range bound session on Thursday and the KSE-100 index advanced just 62 points as investors adopted a wait-and-see strategy in view of the ongoing Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting. Earlier, trading began with a spike and the KSE-100 index crossed the 48,000-point mark in the initial hour. The market’s gains remained modest for most part of the day. At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 61.84 points, or 0.13 percent, to settle at 47,962.54. Overall trading volumes rose to 638.8 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 619.1 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs16.4 billion. Shares of 421 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 207 stocks closed higher, 187 declined and 27 remained unchanged. WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 97.5 million shares, losing Rs 0.21 to close at Rs 3.65.
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France stocks lower at close of trade; CAC 40 down 0.13pc
France stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Foods & Drugs, Gas & Water and General Financial sectors led shares lower. At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 lost 0.13 percent, while the SBF 120 index fell 0.06 percent. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Paris Stock Exchange by 319 to 279 and 77 ended unchanged. The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was unchanged 0 percent to 18.96 a new 3-months low. Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.12 percent or 2.20 to $1778.90 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.02 percent or 0.75 to hit $74.05 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.65 percent or 0.49 to trade at $76.05 a barrel. EUR/USD was up 0.08 percent to 1.1939, while EUR/GBP rose 0.28 percent to 0.8591. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03 percent at 91.767.
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S&P 500 books best week since Feb
The S&P 500 index rose to another record Friday, after investors pored over fresh U.S. economic data a day after an infrastructure spending agreement in Washington helped lift the broad market to all-time highs. The Dow also finished higher, with the rise in Nike shares being a big driver of its gains. JPMorgan Chase & Co. also added to the benchmark’s performance, after the results of the Federal Reserve’s latest stress tests, released Thursday, showed banks have enough capital to withstand a severe global recession and so can resume paying dividends and buying back stock. On Thursday, the Dow ended 322.58 points higher, up 1 percent, at 34,196.82. The S&P 500 advanced 24.65 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,266.49 in what was then a record close, while the Nasdaq rose 0.7 percent, logging its 17th record close of 2021.
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Taiwan shares end above 17,500 points
Shares in Taiwan moved higher to close above the 17,500 point mark Friday with investors encouraged by gains on U.S markets after the US Senate struck an agreement on a US$1.2 trillion infrastructure project, dealers said. Buying focused on select old economy stocks, in particular in the steel sector in the wake of the planned massive infrastructure investment to boost the U.S. economy, while the shipping industry continued to steam ahead, dealers added. The Taiex, the weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), ended up 95.03 points, or 0.55 percent, at 17,502.99, after moving between 17,471.07 and 17,597.33. Turnover totaled NT$476.26 billion (US$17.07 billion). The market opened up 0.36 percent and rose further to hit the day’s high in the early morning session on the back of the all-time highs enjoyed by the S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index overnight, dealers said. Some investors then shifted to the sell side, pocketing the earlier gains built in tech stocks, in particular in the semiconductor industry, capping the upturn on the main board, while the shipping industry continued to serve as a driver to the main board at the end of the session, they said.
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Sensex closes 226 pts higher
Indian indices closed 0.42 percent higher on Friday. RIL’s stock closed was down 2.23 percent, erasing around ₹1.3 trillion in market value in two days. Asian stocks closed higher on Friday on cues from US peers after US president Joe Biden struck a bipartisan consensus on a major infrastructure investment programme. The rupee weakened by 2 paise to end at 74.20 (provisional) against the US dollar on Friday as higher crude oil prices weighed on forex market sentiment. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 74.15 per dollar as against its previous close of 74.18. It hovered in the range of 74.14 to 74.25 during the day before ending at 74.20 against the greenback.
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Canada stocks-tsx opens lower
Canada’s main stock index fell on Friday, with BlackBerry Ltd leading declines following quarterly results, but the index was set for weekly gains. At 9:35 a.m. ET (1335 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 9.35 points, or 0.05 percent, at 20,205.77. Canadian security software supplier Blackberry fell more than 2 percent in early trading, even after beating Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue on Thursday.