UK’s Exporter-Heavy FTSE-100 Surge by Around 1%, Driven by Rally in AstraZeneca’s Shares & Weaker Pound

US Markets: Broader indices in the United States traded in green- particularly, the S&P 500 index traded 66.86 points or 2.63% higher at 2,608.33, Dow Jones Industrial Average Index accelerated by 482.26 points or 2.23% higher at 22,119.04, and the technology benchmark index Nasdaq Composite traded higher at 7,724.36, up by 221.98 points or 2.96% against its previous day close (at the time of writing, before the U.S market close at 1:20 PM ET).

US News: The president Trump has aborted the plan of keeping the United States “open for business" by Easter, April 12 and social distancing guidelines have been extended to April end and until then, the economic stimulus measures are expected to revive the hampered economy. However, oil prices are further hammered as Saudi Arabia evidently pursuing price war with Russia and American producers to reclaim market share; consequently, US oil dipped as low at $19.92 a barrel today (lowest since 2002). Accordingly, the stocks of Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corporation and ConocoPhillips tumbled over 2% to 5%. Rystad Energy anticipate that such decline in prices can compel companies to slash cost and ultimately can lead to 1.6 million job loss. Among the stocks, post FDA’s approval over 15-minutes coronavirus test from Abbott Laboratories, their stock price surged about 8%. Likewise, Microsoft reported octuple growth in its cloud services, especially their ‘Teams’ usage has spiked to 44 million daily users under lockdown and social distancing scenario, and their stock soared by around 5%. Even Zoom video is beneficial of ‘working-from-home’ conditions and its share price further soared about 5.4% after a 7.5% rise on Friday. Similarly, Johnson & Johnson surged around 5.4% as it plans to initiate testing its coronavirus vaccine trial on humans by September. Contrarily, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts announced employees lay-off and CEO to forgo his 2020 base salary to curb the disruption caused by Covid-19 outbreak and consequently, their share plunged approximately 6% today.

S&P 500 (SPX)

Top Performers*: Cardinal Health Inc, McKesson Corp, and Resmed Inc shares increased by 8.02%, 7.30% and 6.96% respectively.

Non Performers*: Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, Carnival Corp and Apache Corp shares decreased by 14.35%, 14.30% and 12.96% respectively.

NASDAQ Composite (IXIC)

Top Performers*: Supercom Ltd, Top Ships Inc, and Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp shares expanded by 212.24%, 75.69% and 51.29% respectively.

Worst Performers*: Eldorado Resorts Inc, Groupon Inc and US Gold Corp shares plunged by 26.55%, 24.82% and 23.57% respectively.

Top Performing Sectors*: Healthcare (+1.82%), Technology (+1.37%), and Consumer Non-Cyclicals (+1.11%).

Top Worst Sectors*: Energy (-3.04%), Telecommunications Services (-1.12%), and Financials (-0.74%).

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI)

Top Performers*:Â Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft Corp and Procter & Gamble Co, are the top gainer and Increased by 5.08%, 4.54% and 4.22%, respectively.

Worst Performers*: Boeing Co, Exxon Mobil Corp, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc are top laggards and decreased by 10.77%, 2.46% and 2.37% respectively.

European Markets: The London’s broader equity benchmark index FTSE 100 traded at 53.41 points or 0.97% higher at 5,563.74, the FTSE 250 index snapped at 145.17 points or 0.98% lower at 14,624.63, and the FTSE All-Share Index ended 19.27 points or 0.64% higher at 3,041.16 respectively. Another European equity benchmark index STOXX 600 ended up by 3.98 points or 1.28 per cent, at 314.88.

European News: UK stocks plunged on Monday since investors are apprehensive about the prolonged shutdown amid coronavirus pandemic post warning of Prime Minister, Boris Johnson that, the worst is yet to come. Also, the EU persuades Britain to extend the post-Brexit transition by a year as negotiations have been stalled due to coronavirus pandemic. On the flip side, the Bank of England data revealed that the number of mortgage approvals surged to 73,546 (highest since January 2014), before the market was dampened by coronavirus spread and subsequent government’s order in March to avoid moving to a new house. Meanwhile, in the European market, led by the appeal of The European Central Bank (ECB) to suspend dividends to maintain credit, the banking sector tumbled and consequently, the stock of UniCredit and ABN Amro declined by around 7%. Also, German annual inflation fell short as compared to ECB’s estimate, allowing them a further scope of deploying stimulus policy to contain the economic disruption from the ongoing virus. Among stocks, Novacyt surged about 20% with an update today regarding their Covid-19 test developed by their division (Primerdesign). Likewise, Bioventix Plc witnessed around 14% jump, post announcement of their positive interim results. Contrarily, the Rolls-Royce dropped around 10% since there is an estimate of 38% decline in global air traffic in 2020. Similarly, easyJet lost about 10% in the early trading post announcement that their entire 344 fleet has been grounded. In comparison, Hammerson Plc plummeted around 18% since their today’s update discusses about financial implications on their business due to store shut down to contain the fatal respiratory disease.

London Stock Exchange

Top Performers*: BMO REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS LIMITED (BREI), SQN ASSET FINANCE INCOME FUND LTD (SQN) and BMO COMMERCIAL PROPERTY TRUST LD (BCPT) are top movers and rose by 25.36%, 20.22% and 16.04% respectively.

Worst Performers*: HAMMERSON PLC (HMSO), RESTAURANT GROUP PLC (RTN) and ASA INTERNATIONAL GROUP PLC (ASAI) plunged by 20.82%, 20.76% and 20.18% respectively.

FTSE 100 Index

5 days FTSE 100 Index Performance (March-30-2020), before the market closed (Source: TR)

Best Gainers*: POLYMETAL INTERNATIONAL PLC (POLY), PEARSON PLC (PSON) and UNITED UTILITIES GROUP PLC (UU.) expanded by 5.96%, 5.86% and 5.61% respectively.

Non Performers*: MELROSE INDUSTRIES PLC (MRO), ROLLS-ROYCE HOLDINGS PLC (RR.) and MEGGITT PLC (MGGT) plunged by 17.14%, 15.05% and 13.52% respectively.

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

Top Sectors traded in the positive zone*: Healthcare (+2.66%), Consumer Non-Cyclicals (+1.32%), and Energy (+1.25%).

Top Sectors traded in the negative zone*: Consumer Cyclicals (-2.80%), Financials (-1.99%) and Telecommunications Services (-1.88%).

Forex Rates*: GBP/USD and EUR/GBP were hovering at 1.2368 and 0.8912, respectively.

Bond Yields*: U.S 10-Year Treasuries yield was tilting at 0.645%, and the UK 10-Year Government Bond yield was hovering at 0.329%, respectively.

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*At the time of writing