Japanese stocks rose on Greece stability

European equities retreated on low corporate earnings

Greece’s parliament passed new austerity measures Thursday, clearing the way for negotiations with its international creditors over a third bailout package, worth up to 86 billion euros. Moreover, Greece hopes to have funding in place by 20 August, when it is due to repay 3.2 billion euros to the European Central Bank. Greece’s banks reopened Monday after being closed for three weeks, although many capital controls remain in effect.

The major Eurostoxx 600 Index of the region decreased 2.9% during the working week to close at 394.64 points on Friday’s evening. All the sectors included in the gauge lost in value, as energy went down 4.3% while basic materials, in turn, lost 8.9%, respectively. Among largest market movers, Alfa Laval AB, a Swedish company, deals in the production of specialized products and solutions for heavy industry, advanced 11.15% to 158 euros. Boliden AB, a Swedish mining and smelting company, added 11.03% to 17.528 euros per share. At the same time, International Personal Finance, a British-based international home credit business, dropped 17.2% to trade at 385 pence, while Azimut Holding SPA, an Italian asset management company decreased 8.7% to 23.48 euros.

Among other market indicators, German DAX grew 1.6% to 11,349 points, while the British FTSE 100 index rose slightly by 0.5% to close at 6,579.81 mark back on Friday.

US stock market decreased on mixed economic data

US shares market weakened, largely driven by mixed economic data. Meanwhile, the median price of US existing homes sold in June reached a record $236,400. The median June sales price was 6.5% higher than a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. But factoring in inflation, prices are 20% below where they were in 2006, when the previous record of $230,400 was set. Meanwhile, in June, US home resales hit their highest point since February 2007. Existing home sales, in turn, rose 3.2% to an annual rate of 5.49 million units. Sales were 9.6% higher than a year earlier.

The benchmark S&P 500 Index decreased 2.2% to close the week at 2,079.65 points, with the majority of all industries that comprise the Index trading lower. Industrials and basic materials declined the most, by 1.2% and 1.8%, respectively. Sandisk Corp, provider of flash storage solutions was the best performing company by soaring 11.4% to $61.84 a share, following a strong second-quarter earnings report . Furthermore, an American corporation that manufactures robotic surgical systems, Intuitive Surgical Inc, jumped 11.6% to $546.08, as the company's 2015 second quarter earnings results beat analysts' estimates.

Meanwhile, the tech-heavy NASDAQ lost 2.5% on the week to 5,088.62 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average diminished 2.9% to close at 17,568 points on Friday.

Japanese stocks rose on Greece stability

Japanese stocks advanced for the past trading week, as situation in Greece stabilised and Chinese markets rallied for three straight days. Meanwhile, the amount of Japanese export rose 9.5% in June from a year earlier, however, volumes were unchanged. Meanwhile, foreign demand for Japanese goods remained flat despite the Yen’s weakness. Japan’s imports fell 2.9%, creating a 69 billion yen trade deficit. Separately, the International Monetary Fund warned that unless Japan addresses its debt through spending cuts and more realistic budget forecasts, its debt could climb to three times the size of its economy by 2030.

The benchmark TOPIX Index rose 2.6% to 1,655.86 points in course of the previous week, as industries in their gains divided almost equally. The top performer of the index was Pixela Corp, which soared 69% to 169 yen. Additionally, Kitazawa Sangyo Co Ltd performed similarly by gaining 38.3% to 148 yen a share. However, two of the worst performing companies were Mitsuba Corp and Makino Milling Machine Co, with each losing almost 10% and 15% during the past week.

At the same time, the second-largest equity index of Japan, the Nikkei 225, advanced 2.2% to the close at 20,544.53 points by the end of the previous trading week.

EXPLANATIONS

Indexes

• Standard & Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500) or (SPX) - U.S. stock market index consisting of the 500 large-cap shares widely traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ.

• Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (INDU) - U.S. stock market index consisting of the 30 large publicly owned U.S. companies , primarily industrials

• NASDAQ Composite Index - U.S. stock market index representing all the stocks that are traded on the Nasdaq stock market, mostly technology and Internet-related

• New Zealand Exchange 50 Gross Index (NZX 50) - stock market index consisting of the top 50 companies listed on the New Zealand Stock exchange

• S&P/ASX 200 - a market-capitalization weighted stock market index of stocks listed on the Australian Securities Exchange from Standard and Poor’s

• Hang Seng Index (HI) - Hong Kong’s stock market index consisting of 48 largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Exchange

• Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average (Nikkei 225 Index) or (NKY) - Japanese stock market index consisting of the 225 largest companies listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange

• FTSE 100 Index (UKX) - U.K. stock market index consisting of the 100 most capitalized U.K. companies trading on the London Stock Exchange

• DAX Index (DAX) - German stock market index consisting of the 30 largest and most liquid German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange

• Eurostoxx 600 - stock market index, derived from the Stoxx Europe Total Market Index, consisting of 600 large, mid– and small-sized companies from 18 European countries

Chart

• Correlation - statistical measure of the linear relationship between two random variables. It is defined as the covariance divided by the standard deviation of two variables.

• Historical price changes - chart reflecting the historical price changes of particular region’s stock indices

Indicators

• Industry performance - weekly performance of industries within the particular stock market index

• Top performers - companies within a particular stock market index showing the best or worst weekly performance

• Performance - relative historical change of stock market index value