US and European Equities Shine in Monday’s Session; FTSE-100 Index up by 1.64%

US Markets: Broader indices in the United States traded in green - particularly, the S&P 500 index traded 30.76 points or 1.08 per cent higher at 2,867.50, Dow Jones Industrial Average Index expanded by 271.23 points or 1.14 per cent higher at 24,046.50, and the technology benchmark index Nasdaq Composite traded higher at 8,722.28, up by 87.76 points or 1.02 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 as the number of Covid-19 cases showed sign of improvement globally, and more states are set to ease the lockdown. However, the US future oil prices (WTI) plunged again around $12.48 a barrel due to lack of storage capacity. Consequently, the Diamond Offshore Drilling has filed for bankruptcy as its situation worsened during crashed oil prices. Moreover, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal budget could hit to a colossal USD 3.7 trillion. Among the stocks, Tesla surged over 9 per cent, post announcement of reopening its factory in California on Wednesday. Contrarily, General Motors dipped around 2 per cent post scrapping its quarterly cash dividend. Similarly, Boeing fell over 1.7 per cent as it dumped a planned joint venture USD 4.2 billion with Embraer SA. Exxon Mobile and ConocoPhillips dropped around 1 per cent and 1.84 per cent, respectively, with falling oil prices.

S&P 500 (SPX)

Top Performers*: Quest Diagnostics Inc, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, and Western Digital Corp shares increased by 6.56%, 5.13% and 4.36%, respectively.

Non Performers*: Apache Corp, Occidental Petroleum Corp and Marathon Oil Corp shares decreased by 7.58%, 7.13% and 6.39%, respectively.

NASDAQ Composite (IXIC)

Top Performers*: Naked Brand Group Ltd, Aytu BioScience Inc and Yield10 Bioscience Inc shares expanded by 141.14%, 36.43% and 35.92%, respectively.

Worst Performers*: Verastem Inc, Emmis Communications Corp and Abraxas Petroleum Corp shares plunged by 45.52%, 30.22% and 24.64%, respectively.

Top Performing Sectors*: Consumer Cyclicals (+1.38%), Financials (+1.05%) and Industrials (+1.00%).

Top Worst Sector*: Energy (-1.21%).

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI)

Top Performers*: Home Depot Inc, Pfizer Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co are the top gainers and increased by 1.88%, 1.85% and 1.70%, respectively.

Non Performers*: Boeing Co, Exxon Mobil Corp and Caterpillar Inc shares decreased by 3.76%, 2.54% and 1.96% respectively.

European Markets: The London’s broader equity benchmark index FTSE 100 traded at 94.56 points or 1.64 per cent higher at 5,846.79, the FTSE 250 index snapped at 265.29 points or 1.69 per cent higher at 15,952.72, and the FTSE All-Share Index ended 51.41 points or 1.62 per cent higher at 3,220.29, respectively. Another European equity benchmark index STOXX 600 ended up by 5.85 points or 1.77 per cent, at 335.44. Among other major European indices, DAX index closed the session at 10,659.99, up by 323.90 points or 3.13 per cent; CAC 40 index increased by 111.94 points or 2.55 per cent and ended the trading session at 4,505.26.

European News: London and European markets surged with hopes of lockdown easing. Moreover, Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to Downing Street and will review the further social distancing measure due on 7^th May 2020. Meanwhile, British economic think tank High pay centre has published a report stating that blue-chip stocks do not deserve aid from the governments furloughing scheme since they have earned significant profits in the past five years. Among the gaining stocks, Novacyt soared over 12.87 per cent post reporting a supply contract from the UK government. InterContinental Hotels rose over 4 per cent post receiving GBP 600 million through Covid Corporate Financing Facility. Ashtead soared over 5 per cent as it raised an additional USD 500 million in debt to weather the economic disruption. Similarly, the airline stocks Lufthansa, and Air France KLM grew over 6.8 per cent and 4.3 per cent, respectively, on hopes of getting government aid package.

London Stock Exchange

Top Performers*: RPS GROUP PLC (RPS), SIG PLC (SHI) and FUNDING CIRCLE HOLDINGS PLC (FCH) are top movers and rose by 22.65%, 16.70% and 16.28%, respectively.

Worst Performers*: MEDICA GROUP PLC (MGP), ASA INTERNATIONAL GROUP PLC (ASAI) and PREMIER OIL PLC (PMO) plunged by 12.69%, 7.27% and 7.05%, respectively.

FTSE 100 Index

5 days FTSE 100 Index Performance (April-27-2020), before the market closed (Source: TR)

Best Gainers*: ASHTEAD GROUP PLC (AHT), CARNIVAL PLC (CCL) and INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP PLC (IHG) expanded by 7.68%, 6.85% and 5.86%, respectively.

Non Performers*: BERKELEY GROUP HOLDINGS (THE) PLC (BKG), FRESNILLO PLC (FRES) and PENNON GROUP PLC (PNN) plunged by 2.86%, 2.69% and 2.32%, respectively.

Shares traded with high-level volume*: (LLOY) LLOYDS BANKING GROUP PLC; (CNA) CENTRICA PLC; (BP.) BP PLC.

Top Sectors traded in the positive zone*: Consumer Cyclicals (+2.69%), Industrials (+2.18%), and Financials (+1.59%).

Top Sector traded in the negative zone*: Utilities (-0.09%).

Oil Prices*: WTI crude oil future price was nudging at $12.57 per barrel, and Brent crude oil future price was trading at $23.02 per barrel.

Forex Rates*: GBP/USD and EUR/GBP were hovering at 1.2408 and 0.8720, respectively.

Bond Yields*: U.S 10-Year Treasuries yield was tilting at 0.649%, and the UK 10-Year Government Bond yield was hovering at 0.302%, respectively.

*At the time of writing