US SHARES RISE ON EARNINGS, HIGHER OIL PRICES
Wall Street stocks rose early Friday on solid earnings from Salesforce and others, winning back more of the losses suffered earlier in the week due to worries about President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Investors bid up a number of stocks following earnings reports, including Salesforce, up 1.5 percent, Deere & Co., up 7.8 percent and Applied Materials, up 0.7 percent. Energy shares rose on higher oil prices, with Halliburton and Devon Energy both gaining 1.5 percent.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 20,718.63, up 0.3 percent. The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent to 2,375.25, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.6 percent to 6,089.89.
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PAKISTAN BOURSE ENDS DISMAL WEEK DOWN AS PROFIT-TAKING CONTINUES
Despite Pakistan’s successful transition to the MSCI emerging market status early this week, successive sessions at the bourse failed to reflect investor enthusiasm and last trading day of the week was no different.
At close on Friday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-share Index showed a fall of 214.57 points or 0.42 percent to end at 50,742.03. Overall, trading volumes increased to 345 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 302 million.
Shares of 413 firms were traded. At the end of the day, 243 stocks ended higher and 162 declined while 8 remained equal. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs12.4 billion. Silkbank was the volume leader with 24.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.04 to close at Rs1.91.
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EUROPEAN STOCKS RECOVER AFTER HEAVY LOSSES
European shares rose on Friday, timidly recovering from heavy losses suffered this week after political turmoil fuelled worries over US President Donald Trump’s stimulus plans, denting appetite for riskier assets.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.4 percent by 0823 GMT, but was down 1.2 percent on the week, its biggest weekly loss since early November. Britain’s FTSE and euro zone blue chips were also up by around 0.4 percent. While gains were spread across all sectors, financials – among the most hit by this week’s sell-off – gave the biggest boost to the STOXX with heavyweight banks UBS, Banco Santander and UniCredit up between 0.6 and 1.4 percent.
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FTSE POSTS 4TH STRAIGHT WEEK OF GAINS
Britain’s major share index recovered on Friday after a pullback in the previous session, marching towards its fourth straight week of gains as investors focused on underlying earnings growth and better economic data.
The FTSE 100 was up 0.5 percent by 0900 GMT, on track for its fourth straight week of gains, though this week’s performance was dented by worries over the Trump administration that have sent stocks tumbling across the globe.
Hikma shares fell 4.6 percent, the top FTSE loser after it lowered its revenue forecast for the full year to reflect a delay in the launch of its generic asthma drug. Hikma fell 8 percent last week after US regulators denied approval for the drug, citing “major” issues with the application.
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BOMBAY STOCK UP; TO ADD KOTAK MAHINDRA, TATA MOTORS DVR TO BENCHMARK INDEX
India’s Bombay Stock Exchange said that it will be adding two stocks – Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd and Tata Motors DVR Ltd – to its benchmark index from June 19.
State-owned gas transmission company Gail Ltd will make way for the two stocks in the benchmark index, it is said on Friday.
On Friday, the benchmark BSE index closed up 0.10 percent at 30,464.92 after earlier rising 0.91 percent to a record high.
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SRI LANKA STOCKS HIGHER
Sri Lanka stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Information Technology, Plantations and Investment Trust sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Colombo, the CSE All-Share gained 0.47 percent to hit a new 52-week high. The best performers of the session on the CSE All-Share were PC House PLC (CM:PCHO), which rose 100.00 percent or 0.100 points to trade at 0.200 at the close. Meanwhile, Nanda Investments and Finance PLC added 24.89 percent or 17.50 points to end at 87.80 and Browns Investments PLC was up 21.05 percent or 0.400 points to 2.300 in late trade. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Colombo Stock Exchange by 128 to 77 and 44 ended unchanged.
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HONG KONG SHARES FLAT FOR THE WEEK; TENCENT HITS ALL-TIME HIGH
Hong Kong stocks edged up on Friday, ending the week roughly flat, as Chinese money continued to flow into the city’s share market, while index heavyweight Tencent closed at an all-time high.
The Hang Seng index rose 0.2 percent, to 25,174.87, while the China Enterprises Index was unchanged at 10,267.39 points. For the week, the indexes were roughly flat. The market has been hovering near 21-month highs, as Chinese money poured into Hong Kong stocks. On Friday, mainland investors used 25 percent of the daily quota under the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect to buy Hong Kong equities. Most sectors rose on Friday, with IT and property shares among the leading gainers. An index tracking mainland developers rebounded more than 3 percent.