Japan stocks lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.98pc
Japan stock were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Paper & Pulp, Railway & Bus and Real Estate sectors led shares lower. At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.98 percent. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by 1768 to 1674 and 305 ended unchanged. The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0 percent to 17.87. Crude oil for August delivery was down 0.27 percent or 0.19 to $71.46 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in September fell 0.23 percent or 0.17 to hit $73.30 a barrel, while the August Gold Futures contract fell 0.35 percent or 6.35 to trade at $1822.65 a troy ounce.
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Benchmark indices give up early gains, Sensex flat at 53,200
The benchmark indices, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, gave up their early gains to trade flat in the mid-morning session on Friday. At 11.18 am, Sensex was at 53,200, up 41 points or 0.08 percent, while the Nifty was at 15,935, up 11 points or 0.07 percent. The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel, ITC, Reliance, Sun Pharma and Tata Steel. The laggards were HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, ICICI Bank and NTPC. According to an agency report, Sensex jumped over 100 points to touch a record intra-day high in early trade, tracking gains in index majors Reliance Industries, HDFC twins and ITC, despite a largely negative trend in global markets. In the previous session, Sensex settled 254.75 points or 0.48 percent higher at its lifetime high of 53,158.85, and Nifty rose 70.25 points or 0.44 percent to its all-time high of 15,924.20. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 264.77 crore on Thursday, as per provisional exchange data.
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CAC 40 edges lower on inflation concerns
French stock exchange edged lower on Wednesday as investors fretted about the impact higher prices will have on economies around the world. After U.S. inflation data blew past Wall Street’s expectations, investors now wait for guidance from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who delivers his semi-annual testimony on monetary policy and the economy today and tomorrow. The dollar may see bullish bets if he suggests that taper are right around the corner. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly told CNBC that the time for tapering is drawing near and a strong economic recovery will allow the central bank to slow its asset purchases by late this year or early in 2022. The benchmark CAC 40 index slipped 17 points, or 0.3 percent, to 6,541 after closing marginally lower in the previous session. Travel stocks dropped, with airline Air France KLM falling more than 1 percent on worries over the Delta variant’s spread in the continent.
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Germany stocks lower at close of trade; DAX down 1.01pc
Germany stock exchange were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Technology, Industrials and Consumer & Cyclical sectors led shares lower. At the close in Frankfurt, the DAX declined 1.01 percent, while the MDAX index declined 0.70 percent, and the TecDAX index declined 0.76 percent. Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange by 505 to 187 and 67 ended unchanged. The DAX volatility index, which measures the implied volatility of DAX options, was up 3.27 percent to 18.00. Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.08 percent or 1.55 to $1826.55 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.90 percent or 0.66 to hit $72.47 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.75 percent or 0.56 to trade at $74.20 a barrel.
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FTSE 100 declines as oil and gas stocks tumble
London’s FTSE 100 dropped heavily on Thursday, dragged by energy stocks, as they tracked falling oil prices. Drugmakers also declined, pushing the index to the worst levels of the week. The blue-chip index fell by over 1 percent or 79 points to close down to 7012. Film company Cineworld dropped by almost 10 percent while Tullow oil and Just Eat Takeaway lost 9 percent each. However, the Prague-based cybersecurity company Avast saw a major 18 percent share price surge after reports of its potential merger with US software company NortonLifeLock. The fall in oil majors came after Brent’s decline following reports of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia had reached a compromise in OPEC over their ongoing oil policy dispute. With oil and gas stocks tumbling worldwide, the pan-European Stoxx 600 closed down by 1 percent, while France’s CAC and Germany’s DAX also declined around a percent. The US stocks also tumbled on Thursday despite positive second-quarter earnings results posted by companies, as S&P 500 dipped 0.3 percent. While the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.7 percent but the Dow Jones Industrials Average added about 0.16 percent.
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Nasdaq ends lower as investors sell big tech stocks
The Nasdaq ended lower on Thursday, pulled down by Apple, Amazon and other Big Tech companies as a fall in weekly jobless claims data fed investor concerns about a recent inflation spike. The S&P 500 technology sector index fell 0.8 percent and ended a four-day winning streak. Earlier this week, investors’ favor for heavyweight growth stocks pushed the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to record highs. The S&P 500 energy sector index fell 1.4 percent and tracked a drop in crude prices on expectations of more supply after a compromise agreement between leading OPEC producers. Data showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to a 16-month low, while worker shortages and bottlenecks in the supply chain have frustrated efforts by businesses to ramp up production to meet strong demand for goods and services. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 0.15 percent to end at 34,987.02 points, while the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 0.33 percent to 4,360.03.