US SHARES DIP AS HURRICANE IRMA APPROACHES FLORIDA
Wall Street stocks dipped early Friday as a monster-sized Hurricane Irma ripped through Caribbean and headed towards the United States.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 21,771.81, down 0.1 percent. The broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.1 percent at 2,462.35, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.2 percent to 6,387.65. Credit reporting agency Equifax sank 13.2 percent after it disclosed that it suffered a hack that affected as many as 143 million US customers, nearly half the country’s population.
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BRITAIN’S FTSE DECLINES
A fall in mining stocks put pressure on Britain’s top share index on Friday, while British consumer-facing stocks came into sharp focus after pub operator Greene King’s shares plunged following a bleak trading update.
The blue chip FTSE 100 index ended down 0.3 percent at 7,377.60 points, while mid caps declined 0.4 percent. The FTSE 100 ended a week dominated by a European Central Bank meeting with a loss of 0.8 percent.
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PSX STOCKS BOUNCE BACK, END WEEK ON A POSITIVE NOTE
In contrast to the previous session, Pakistan Stock Exchange broke its two-day losing streak on Friday and entered the green zone.
Propelled by cement, auto and oil stocks, the benchmark index – which had hit a new low on Thursday – managed to close above 41,000 points.
The KSE-100 Index shot up from the word go to hit an intra-day high of 677 points in just the first half hour of trading. Later, it started to descend, but still remained positive. At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 442.37 points or 1.08 percent to end at 41,401.02.
Overall, trading volumes fell slightly to 140 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 147 million. Shares of 388 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 263 stocks closed higher, 103 declined while 22 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8.4 billion. TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 18.3 million shares, gaining Rs1.23 to close at Rs39.80.
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SRI LANKA SHARES HIGHER
Sri Lanka stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, Information Technology and Trading sectors led shares higher. At the close in Colombo, the CSE All-Share added 0.22 percent. The best performers of the session on the CSE All-Share were PC Pharma PLC (CM:PCPH), which rose 100.00 percent or 0.1000 points to trade at 0.2000 at the close.
Meanwhile, J L Morison Sons & Jones (Ceylon) PLC added 21.98 percent or 93.70 points to end at 520.00 and Hikkaduwa Beach Resort Ltd was up 21.43 percent or 3.00 points to 17.00 in late trade.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Colombo Stock Exchange by 132 to 62 and 42 ended unchanged. Shares in Amaya Leisure PLC fell to 5-year lows; losing 14.83percent or 8.90 to 51.10.
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TSX LITTLE CHANGED
Canada’s main stock index was little changed on Thursday as strong gains in consumer discretionary shares helped offset losses in the heavyweight financial and energy sectors.
Manulife Financial Corp slid 1.5 percent to C$23.56, and Sun Life Financial declined 1.1 percent to C$46.31. The overall financial services sector, which accounts for roughly a third of the index’s weight, fell 0.4 percent. At 10:36 a.m. ET (1436 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index rose 1.48 points, or 0.01 percent, to 15,061.31. Of the index’s 10 main groups, six were in positive territory.
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TOKYO SHARES DECLINE
Tokyo stocks dropped Friday with exporters under pressure as the yen hit a 10-month high against the dollar and traders kept a nervous eye on a possible fresh North Korean missile launch.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.63 percent, or 121.70 points, to close at 19,274.82, the lowest since late April. It lost 2.12 percent over the week. The broader Topix index was down 0.29 percent, or 4.70 points, at 1,593.54. It fell 1.61 percent over the week.
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HONG KONG SHARES UP
Hong Kong shares headed into the break Friday on a positive note following a turbulent four days caused by North Korea’s nuclear test, though traders remain on edge ahead of a feared missile launch at the weekend.
The Hang Seng Index added 0.61 percent, or 166.92 points, to 27,689.84.