How the European Markets Performed in Friday’s Trading Session?

US Markets: Broader indices in the United States traded in green - particularly, the S&P 500 index traded 9.40 points or 0.34 per cent higher at 2,807.20, Dow Jones Industrial Average Index expanded by 23.64 points or 0.10 per cent higher at 23,538.90, and the technology benchmark index Nasdaq Composite traded higher at 8,521.68, up by 26.93 points or 0.32 per cent against its previous day close (at the time of writing, before the U.S market close at 11:00 AM ET).

US News: The Wall Street opened higher on mixed signals as Congress decided to assist small businesses with USD 300 billion aid package, and corporate earnings reported better results than expected. Adjacently, according to the Census Bureau, manufacturing of durable goods plunged 14.4 per cent or by USD 36 billion in March 2020; prior to March, the factory orders had jumped for the consecutive three months. Moreover, the drug maker Gilead has terminated the clinical trial without any conclusive findings for treating the Covid-19 and subsequently, the stock plunged over 1 per cent. Among other stocks, Zoom surged over 3.5 per cent as its user base top 300 million. The oil majors - Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp, Apache Corp, and Devon Energy Corp rose around 2%, 1%, 5% and 3%, respectively, as oil prices have shown recovery from a historic collapse. Contrarily, Intel Corp dropped over 3 per cent, post pulling the full-year guidance.

S&P 500 (SPX)

Top Performers*: Freeport-McMoRan Inc, Invesco Ltd, and Capital One Financial Corp shares increased by 8.96%, 5.79% and 5.07%, respectively.

Non Performers*: Simon Property, Boeing and Helmerich Payne shares decreased by 4.86%, 4.19% and 4.45%, respectively.

NASDAQ Composite (IXIC)

Top Performers*: Mesoblast, Medigus ADR and Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc shares expanded by 134.53%, 82.98% and 40.54%, respectively.

Worst Performers*: Odyssey, Limelight and Polar Power shares plunged by 15.37%, 14.48% and 12.96%, respectively.

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI)

Top Performers*: Home Depot, Apple and Merck&Co are the top gainers and increased by 2.24%, 1.45% and 1.05%, respectively.

Non Performers*: Boeing, Intel and Caterpillar shares decreased by 4.44%, 2.71% and 0.91% respectively.

European Markets: The London’s broader equity benchmark index FTSE 100 traded at 74.38 points or 1.28 per cent lower at 5,752.23, the FTSE 250 index snapped at 106.61 points or 0.68 per cent lower at 15,687.43, and the FTSE All-Share Index ended 36.79 points or 1.15 per cent lower at 3,168.88, respectively. Another European equity benchmark index STOXX 600 ended down by 3.65 points or 1.10 per cent, at 329.59. Among other major European indices, DAX index closed the session at 10,336.09, down by 177.70 points or 1.69 per cent; CAC 40 index decreased by 57.68 points or 1.30 per cent and ended the trading session at 4,393.32.

European News: London and European markets tumbled on Friday with the collapse of UK retail sales in March. As the Office for National Statistics stated that the sales plummeted 5.1 per cent in March (compared to February) despite the skyrocketed online sales of food and toiletry items. Moreover, the lack of details regarding the trillion-euro emergency fund agreed by the bloc raised further apprehensions. However, the Bank of England stated that it would buy GBP 13.5 billion of government bonds in the next week to aid the economy through the pandemic further. Meanwhile, the Financial Conducts Authority has confirmed a freeze of repayments over consumer finance, auto finance and other credit loans for a duration of three months. Among the stocks, BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell were down by 3 per cent each due to volatility in oil prices and brutal business environment over the past week; moreover, the market analyst expects that Global oil supplies to shrink 6 per cent projected by 2030. Meanwhile, Pearson dipped over 3 per cent post reporting a 5 per cent decline in the first-quarter revenue. Similarly, the travelling stock Deutsche Lufthansa AG tumbled over 11 per cent post reporting a first-quarter loss of EUR 1.2 billion.

London Stock Exchange

Top Performers*: GEM DIAMONDS (GEMD), INTERNATIONAL PERSONAL FINANCE PLC (IPF) and ASTON MARTIN LAGONDA GLOBAL HOLDING (AML) are top movers and rose by 11.73%, 11.67% and 10.33%, respectively.

Worst Performers*: FUNDING CIRCLE HOLDINGS PLC (FCH), TULLOW OIL PLC (TLW) and HYVE GROUP PLC (HYVE) plunged by 12.49%, 9.43% and 7.94%, respectively.

FTSE 100 Index

5 days FTSE 100 Index Performance (April-24-2020), before the market closed (Source: TR)

Best Gainers*: RSA INSURANCE GROUP PLC (RSA), SMITHS GROUP PLC (SMIN) and TAYLOR WIMPEY PLC (TW.) expanded by 3.94%, 3.26% and 2.84%, respectively.

Non Performers*: INTERTEK GROUP PLC (ITRK), COMPASS GROUP PLC (CPG) and MEGGITT PLC (MGGT) plunged by 5.44%, 5.27% and 4.65%, respectively.

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

Oil Prices*: WTI crude oil future price was nudging at $16.96 per barrel, and Brent crude oil future price was trading at $21.64 per barrel.

Forex Rates*: GBP/USD and EUR/GBP were hovering at 1.2338 and 0.8749, respectively.

Bond Yields*: U.S 10-Year Treasuries yield was tilting at 0.604%, and the UK 10-Year Government Bond yield was hovering at 0.287%, respectively.

*At the time of writing