Pakistan’s KSE-100 climbs 685 points
In a turn of events, the KSE-100 Index climbed north on the last day of the week, increasing 685 points as buying across the board helped it surpass the 43,500 mark.
Bank and oil stocks led the rally, helping the benchmark shoot up 749 points in intra-day trading before minor profit-taking brought the index down.
At close, the benchmark 100-share index recorded an increase of 684.75 points or 1.59 percent to settle at 43,627.10. Shares of 379 companies were traded. During the day, 259 stocks closed higher, 93 declined while 27 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.84 billion. TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 13.8 million shares, gaining Rs0.89 to close at Rs36.44. It was followed by Azgard Nine with 11.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.68 to close at Rs20 and Pakistan Stock Exchange with 5.7 million shares, gaining Rs0.27 to close at Rs24.80.
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US shares gain for 5th straight day
Wall Street stocks enjoyed more solid gains Thursday, climbing for a fifth straight session and shrugging off fresh data showing higher inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2 percent to end the day at 25,200.37. The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 1.2 percent to close at 2,731.20, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.6 percent to 7,256.43. The gains suggest Wall Street is beginning to regain confidence after a major selloff earlier this month briefly sent major indices down more than 10 percent which is considered correction territory.
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Nikkei grows on relief over Kuroda’s reappointment
Japanese stocks rose on Friday, with investors relieved to see the government appoint Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda for another term and choose an advocate of bolder monetary easing as one of his deputies.
The Nikkei ended 1.2 percent higher to 21,720.25. For the week, it rose 1.6 percent. The broader Topix gained 1.1 percent to 1,737.37, with all 33 subsectors in positive territory. Shares in utilities, food and medicine companies, which are the most sensitive to domestic demand, outperformed. Tokyo Electric Power soared 4.4 percent, Chubu Electric Power Co jumped 6.5 percent, Astellas Pharma gained 1.2 percent and Ajinomoto Co added 2.0 percent. Chip-related stocks were also strong, with Tokyo Electron and Advantest Corp both rising 1.8 percent.
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Vivendi stocks drop as French group’s lack of guidance underwhelms
Vivendi shares dropped on Friday as the French media conglomerate disappointed investors by failing to offer full guidance for 2018.
Shares in Vivendi, led by French billionaire Vincent Bollore , were down 5.6 percent at 20.95 euros in early trade, the worst performer on France’s benchmark CAC-40 index. The shares had outperformed the stock market in 2017. Vivendi shares, which climbed 24 percent in 2017 to beat a 2.6 percent drop in the STOXX Europe Media 600 index, are down by about 6 percent so far in 2018.
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TSX rises on bank stocks, TransCanada
Canada’s main stock index opened higher on Thursday, boosted by the financial sector and shares of TransCanada Corp, which reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit. Shortly after the opening bell, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 82.16 points, or 0.54 percent, at 15,410.43.
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Sri Lanka shares higher
Sri Lanka stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Investment Trust, Services and Diversified Holdings sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Colombo, the CSE All-Share added 0.16 percent. The best performers of the session on the CSE All-Share were Hunas Falls Hotels PLC, which rose 24.95 percent or 12.50 points to trade at 62.60 at the close. Meanwhile, Hemas Power PLC added 21.05 percent or 4.00 points to end at 23.00 and Hotel Sigiriya PLC was up 13.95 percent or 8.20 points to 67.00 in late trade. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Colombo Stock Exchange by 102 to 70 and 55 ended unchanged.
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Asian shares march on recovery path
Stocks in Asia and Europe pushed higher on Friday, extending a recovery from a panic attack over the prospect of a steeper rise in US interest rates.
Asian stock markets climbed in thin holiday trade, led by gains in Tokyo, which passed the baton over to European markets. London was 0.8 percent higher in late morning trading, despite a disappointing increase of just 0.1 percent in retail sales last month, after a revised 1.4 percent fall in December.
However, London stocks were buoyed by the strong pound, which increases profits for FTSE-100 listed stocks which conduct most of their sales outside of Britain. France’s CAC 40 and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt both climbed 1.0 percent higher. The gains followed US indices closing higher for the fifth straight session on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both gaining 1.2 percent.