European stocks rose early in yesterday’s trading session and headed for the longest wave of gains in more than 3 years. The Stoxx 600 European index rose 0.1%, recording gains for the seventh straight week in the longest wave of gains since March 2015. The German DAX and the Financial Times 100 index did not change in terms of percentage.
As Europe’s first quarter results season draws to a close, core resources is leading the best performing sectors after ArcelorMittal rose by 3.6%. The world’s biggest metal maker posted better-than-expected earnings and gave an optimistic outlook for 2018.
Wall Street indexes were slightly changed yesterday, as losses in shares of Symantec and NVIDIA offset gains in healthcare and telecoms. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 19.11 points, or 0.08 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.37 points, or 0.01 percent. The Nasdaq Composite Index also dropped by 11.01 points, or 0.15 percent.
The Japanese Nikkei rose to a three-month high yesterday, supported by weak US inflation data that dampened fears that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at a rapid pace, as well as good earnings results for a number of companies. Nikkei closed up 1.16% to 22.758 points. The broader TOPIX index was up 0.98%, at 1,794.96. Shares linked to chip companies rose after the shares of US counterparts led by Apple saw gains. Tokyo Electron rose by 2.5%, while Advantest Corp rose 0.9% and Morata saw an increase of 4.6%.
Suzuki Motors gained 9 percent after its operating profit skyrocketed 40.3 percent, to $3.42 billion in the year to March, exceeding analysts’ expectations. Panasonic shares rose by 4.9% after the company’s net profit increased by 58% in the year to March. The index of the Karachi Stock Exchange, the largest stock market in Pakistan, fell yesterday by 0.60%, or 260 points, and closed at 43,594 points. The market value of shares of 92 companies, and the value of shares of 242 companies, and stabilized the value of shares of 25 companies. Cement and banking shares dominated the positive trading on the exchange.
On the Arab side, the general price index of shares listed on the Jordanian Stock Exchange decreased by 1.36%, to close the week at 2137 points, compared to 2167 points for the previous week. The daily average volume of trading on the ASE reached JD 6.1 million last week compared to JD 8.0 million in the previous week, a decrease of 24.1%.
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