France stocks higher at close of trade; cac 40 up 0.73pc
France stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Utilities sectors led shares higher. At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 added 0.73 percent, while the SBF 120 index gained 0.73 percent. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Paris Stock Exchange by 284 to 240 and 109 ended unchanged. The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was unchanged 0.00 percent to 18.96 a new 52-week high.
Sensex up 503 pts
Domestic indices danced to the tunes of global sentiment, rising and falling in tandem with US futures all through the day. The S&P BSE Sensex traded in a broad range of 921 points as it hit a high and low of 54,346 and 53,425, respectively. By close, the index stood at 54,252.5, up 503 points or 0.9 percent against its previous close. The Nifty50 index, meanwhile, advanced 144 points or 0.9 percent to close at 16,170. It gyrated within a range of 16,203 and 15,903 levels. The broader BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices outrun the benchmarks as they rose up to 1.4 percent. Tata Steel and JSW Steel were the top large-cap frontrunners, rallying 7 percent and 5 percent, respectively, after two straight days of bear hammering. Apollo Hospitals, SBI, Hindalco, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and HDFC were the other gainers on the Nifty50 index, rising over 2 percent each. Within the broader market space, Torrent Pharma, M&M Financial Services, Adani Power, ITI, Uttam Sugar, and AIA Engineering stole the show. Sectorally, the Nifty PSU Bank and Metal indices dazzled with 3 percent and 2.67 percent surge, respectively. On the downside, only the Nifty FMCG index was in the red, down 0.2 percent.
Tokyo’s Nikkei index closes lower
Tokyo’s key Nikkei 225 index closed lower Thursday on fears over inflationary pressure due to the war in Ukraine, but with few fresh market-moving events. The Nikkei 225 index ended down 0.27 percent, or 72.96 points, at 26,604.84, while the broader Topix index closed 0.05 percent, or 1.00 points, higher at 1,877.58. The Tokyo market started with gains extending Wall Street rallies, but later started to slip “following subdued Chinese shares”, Okasan Online Securities said in a note. The Japanese market “lacked a sense of direction” with a dearth of market-moving events, it added. The dollar fetched 127.29 yen in Asia, against 127.26 yen in New York late Wednesday. Global markets perked up overnight after the US Federal Reserve released its minutes in which policymakers, as investors expected, agreed that they need to raise rates by 50 basis points in the next two meetings. Market players are now eyeing the release of US GDP data later in the day, said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management. However, inflationary pressure due to the war in Ukraine continued to worry investors. In Tokyo, Mitsubishi Electric dropped 4.15 percent to 1,363.5 yen, chip-testing equipment maker Advantest sank 3.63 percent to 8,220 yen, and Takeda Pharmaceutical was off 0.66 percent at 3,762 yen.
FTSE 100 edges up
Over in the US, and the economy slowed more than expected in the first quarter but weekly jobless claims were better than forecast. The latest GDP figures show an annualised fall of 1.5 percent, a rise from the initial 1.4 percent drop and confounding expectations of an improvement to -1.3 percent. But the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefit for the first time was 210,000 last week, down 8,000 on the previous week and better than the anticipated fall to 215,000. The market is fairly unmoved by the chancellor’s help for the cost of living crisis. The FTSE 100 remains marginally higher, up 7.45 points or 0.09 percent at 7530.2. They too seem to be shrugging it off, with Shell PLC up 0.9 percent and BP PLC 0.83 percent better. Rishi Sunak also said he was “urgently evaluating” the scale of the extraordinary profits made by electricity generators. SSE PLC has slipped a little lower and is now down 2.46 percent but Drax Group is up 0.21 percent. Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘’As Chancellor Rishi Sunak perfected his U-turn on a windfall tax, the share prices of BP and Shell also looped lower, before climbing back up, as investors shrugged off its impact given that it is expected to be a short lived hit.
Taiwan stock market may find additional support on Thursday
The Taiwan stock market bounced higher again on Wednesday, one day after ending the two-day winning streak in which it had added more than 135 points or 0.8 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 16,100-point plateau and it’s got a solid lead for Thursday’s trade, as well. The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive, with technology, retail and energy stocks expected to lead the way higher. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow that lead. The TSE finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the technology stocks, cement companies and plastic shares, while the financials were mixed. For the day, the index climbed 140.40 points or 0.88 percent to finish at 16,104.03 after trading between 15,980.90 and 16,169.18. Among the actives, Cathay Financial retreated 1.15 percent, while Mega Financial gathered 1.08 percent, CTBC Financial shed 0.78 percent, Fubon Financial skidded 1.00 percent, First Financial lost 0.57 percent, E Sun Financial collected 0.34 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company improved 0.77 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation added 0.71 percent, Hon Hai Precision climbed 1.39 percent, Largan Precision soared 2.52 percent, Catcher Technology sank 0.62 percent, MediaTek strengthened 1.57 percent, Delta Electronics advanced 1.14 percent, Novatek Microelectronics increased 1.17 percent, Formosa Plastic perked 0.48 percent , Nan Ya Plastics gained 0.86 percent, Asia Cement jumped 1.70 percent and Taiwan Cement rallied 1.09 percent.