FTSE-100 Index Edges Higher by 0.55% in Thursday’s Market Session

US Markets: Broader indices in the United States traded in mix - particularly, the S&P 500 index traded 3.06 points or 0.11% lower at 2,780.30, Dow Jones Industrial Average Index contracted by 189.47 points or 0.81% lower at 23,314.88, and the technology benchmark index Nasdaq Composite traded higher at 8,448.96, up by 55.78 points or 0.66% against its previous day close (at the time of writing, before the U.S market close at 1:10 PM ET).

US News: The Wall Street showed a mixed response today since it opened higher; however, it tumbled in less than half an hour of trading. As there is a hope that President Donal Trump will issue the guidelines for restarting US activities, following yesterday’s report on key data decline. However, another 5.2 million people have filed for jobless claims in the week ending 11^th April 2020. Now, 22 million Americans have filed for claims since mid-March due to the business shutdown and job losses at large. Meanwhile, the count of coronavirus cases reached over 639,664 in number with 30,985 deaths. Among the stocks, Inovio Pharmaceuticals surged over 6 per cent, post receiving USD 6.9 million in funding. Amazon’s stock jumped around 1.85 per cent post suspending nearly 6,000 seller accounts as they were overcharging for essential items during the pandemic state. Similarly, Bank of New York Mellon and BlackRock surged by around 4.56 per cent and 1.92 per cent, respectively, post reporting increase in first-quarter revenue. Contrarily, Twitter’s share plunged by about 2.62 per cent, after JP Morgan has downgraded its recommendation to neutral from overweight.

S&P 500 (SPX)

Top Performers*: Bank of New York Mellon Corp, KLA Corp, and Marketaxess Holdings Inc shares increased by 5.86%, 3.76% and 3.68%, respectively.

Non Performers*: United Airlines Holdings Inc, Diamondback Energy Inc and Mohawk Industries Inc shares decreased by 6.69%, 6.29% and 5.94%, respectively.

NASDAQ Composite (IXIC)

Top Performers*: Edison Nation Inc, Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc, and Atossa Therapeutics Inc shares expanded by 150.30%, 72.96% and 67.97%, respectively.

Worst Performers*: TDH Holdings Inc, Athersys Inc and InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp shares plunged by 27.73%, 25.97% and 21.67%, respectively.

Top Performing Sectors*: Healthcare (+1.17%), Basic Materials (+1.15%), and Technology (+0.99%).

Top Worst Sector*: Energy (-0.34%).

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI)

Top Performers*: Microsoft Corp, Intel Corp and UnitedHealth Group Inc are the top gainers and increased by 1.50%, 1.49% and 1.03%, respectively.

Non Performers*: Boeing Co, Mcdonald’s Corp, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc shares decreased by 4.00%, 2.33% and 2.22% respectively.

European Markets: The London’s broader equity benchmark index FTSE 100 traded at 30.78 points or 0.55% higher at 5,628.43, the FTSE 250 index snapped at 31.01 points or 0.20% higher at 15,378.57, and the FTSE All-Share Index ended 14.69 points or 0.48% higher at 3,102.13 respectively. Another European equity benchmark index STOXX 600 ended up by 1.86 points or 0.58 per cent, at 324.92. Among other major European indices, DAX index closed the session at 10,301.54, up by 21.78 points or 0.21%; CAC 40 index dipped by 3.56 points or 0.08% and ended the trading session at 4,350.16.

European News: London and European markets soared post two days slump as the death rate in Italy, and Spain eased out. Also, Prince William announced the opening of the National Health Service field hospital as there are more than 100,000 Covid-19 cases in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, The British Retail Consortium (BRC), has stated that in the last two weeks of March of 2020, the retail sector has seen a 27 per cent fall in its sales figures. Also, the office of National Statistics has reported today that 25 per cent of the businesses have been temporarily shut down and the remaining businesses that are opened, have furloughed 21 per cent of their staff. Among the stocks, EasyJet indicated that it would be able to weather this challenging scenario by being cash positive; subsequently, its share price jumped over 3.5 per cent. Similarly, Rentokil Initial stock increased by around 3 per cent as it has adopted measures including 35 per cent pay cut for board members and staff layoff. The asset manager Schroders also reported a gain of around 2.4 per cent post reporting a new business of GBP 30.4 billion. Contrarily, Petrofac plummeted over 15 per cent, post-termination of USD 1.6 billion contract that was awarded to Emirati.

London Stock Exchange

Top Performers*: FUNDING CIRCLE HOLDINGS PLC (FCH), HYVE GROUP PLC (HYVE) and INTU PROPERTIES PLC (INTU) are top movers and rose by 37.81%, 25.59% and 14.54%, respectively.

Worst Performers*: PETROFAC LD (PFC), COSTAIN GROUP PLC (COST) and BMO PRIVATE EQUITY TRUST PLC (BPET) plunged by 14.61%, 11.87% and 11.61%, respectively.

FTSE 100 Index

5 days FTSE 100 Index Performance (April-16-2020), before the market closed (Source: TR)

Best Gainers*: EVRAZ PLC (EVR), AUTO TRADER GROUP PLC (AUTO) and SMURFIT KAPPA GROUP PLC (SKG) expanded by 7.26%, 5.21% and 5.18%, respectively.

Non Performers*: M&G PLC (MNG), ST.JAMES'S PLACE PLC (STJ) and NEXT PLC (NXT) plunged by 11.37%, 5.21% and 4.49%, respectively.

Shares traded with high-level volume*: (LLOY) LLOYDS BANKING GROUP PLC; (BARC) BARCLAYS PLC; (VOD) VODAFONE GROUP PLC.

Top Sectors traded in the positive zone*: Healthcare (+2.28%), Utilities (+1.50%), and Technology (+1.41%).

Top Sectors traded in the negative zone*: Energy (-3.59%), Financials (-1.20%), and Consumer Non-Cyclicals (-0.02%).

Oil Prices*: WTI crude oil future price was nudging at $19.71 per barrel, and Brent crude oil future price was trading at $27.35 per barrel.

Forex Rates*: GBP/USD and EUR/GBP were hovering at 1.2436 and 0.8720, respectively.

Bond Yields*: U.S 10-Year Treasuries yield was tilting at 0.603%, and the UK 10-Year Government Bond yield was hovering at 0.292%, respectively.

*At the time of writing

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