Asia Pacific Shares experienced increase in value

European shares were positive during previous trading week

European shares were gloomy on Friday, ahead of the flash PMI reports from Germany and the Euro Zone. The European shares closed mixed already on Thursday after the ECB hold interest rates unchanged. Moreover, the ECB president Mario Draghi warned that inflation may turn negative in the coming months.

The major Eurostoxx 600 Index of the region rose slightly 1.2% to close at 348.46 points on Friday’s evening. The industries posted strong and were led by basic materials and banking sectors, which soared 9.34% and 6.86%, respectively. The top performance was led by energy- and commodity-sensitive companies. As a result, Vallourec SA, a world leader in premium tubular solutions serving energy and industry markets surged 27.71% to 4.65 euros, while the Zodiac Aerospace, a French aerospace group that supplies systems and equipment for aircraft advanced 17.7% to trade at 21.19 euros, after an unexpected offer made by French aerospace group Safran.

Nevertheless, Ericsson LM-B SHS, dropped as much as 13.9% to 67.45 euros. The shares plunged, after the Swedish company announced changes to be made to executive leadership team.

Among other market indicators, German DAX added 2.5% to 10,396 points, while the British FTSE 100 index, in turn, lost 0.68% to close at 6,310.44 mark back on Friday.

 

US stock indices close mostly lower compared to the previous week

The US stock market ended in the red, pulled down by the rather weak utilities sector, while investors concentrated on declining oil prices and a new set of economic updates. Meanwhile, the new jobless claims were only 247,000 versus a consensus of 265,000. Although this is the lowest level since 1971, the size of the labor market is much larger today than it was over 40 years ago. The fact that employers are holding onto their employees may be a good sign for the labor market.

For the week ended April 22 the main S&P 500 Index went down slightly 0.13% to 2,091.58 points. The gains were led by financials and basic materials, which rose 3.6% and 2.6%, accordingly. Consumer staples, in turn, was the week’s worst performers, as it dropped 0.07%, respectively. Among the best performing companies, Endo International Plc, an American healthcare company, soared 29.05% to trade at $33.98. Meanwhile, during the past 52 weeks, the stock’s price witnessed a minimum value of $25.23 as well as managed to switch to the maximum value of $94.33. Nevertheless, Netflix Inc, a provider of Internet television network, lost 14% to trade at $95.90.

Among other market indicators, the Dow Jones Industrial Average did not show any changes, while NASDAQ lost 1.08% to close at the 4,906.22 mark.

 

Japanese shares closed purely green

The Japanese equities traded in a purely positive environment during the April 18-22 week, since the Japanese stocks were lifted by fresh speculation over the Bank of Japan (BoJ) weakened the yen and boosted shares of exporters.

The Nikkei 225 benchmark index soared 7.9% to hover around 17,572.49 points at the end of the trading week ended on April 22. Moreover, all sectors of the gauge posted a sharp increase, with insurance and banking products industries leading the rise by 11.9% and 11.5%, respectively. Among best performers, Computer Engineer & Consult, a Japan-based company that develops software surged 25.8% to 1,753 yen. On the other hand, Mitsubishi Motors Corp, a multinational automotive manufacturer, plummeted 40.5% to trade at 504 yen. Such an impressive decline took place after the fuel economy scandal which broadened on Friday since the US auto safety authorities said they were seeking information, and media reported that the automaker had submitted misleading data on at least one more model than disclosed and likely several others. Moreover, the company even unlikely to issue an earnings forecast for the current financial year due to uncertainty about the impact of the stated above scandal.

By the way, Topix shares surged 6.63% to trade at 1,407.50 points.

 

Asia Pacific Shares experienced increase in value

Asian stocks rose, due to overall surge in commodity prices. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia declined the idea to freeze oil production without Iran's participation, while Iran announced that it do not want to participate in the talks in Doha, Qatar. However, both Iran and Saudi Arabia remained focused on retaining oil market share in an ongoing price war for European customers.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index managed to reach 5,236.40 on Friday, marking a weekly gain of 1.9%. Eight out of ten industry groups included in the indexes surged on week, with energy rising 9.7% and basic materials adding 5.01%. Bradken Ltd, global manufacturer and supplier of differentiated consumable and capital products to the mining sector, was the last week’s best performer on the S&P/ASX 200, as company added 29.5% to trade at $0.92. Liquefied Natural Gas, an Australia-based company engaged in developing liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal projects jumped by 17% to $0.58.

Meanwhile, the Chinese shares in Hong Kong surged 1.44 % to 21,467.04 last week for the biggest weekly gain since February. Also, on Friday, the NZX 50 Index hit 6,866.11 gaining additional 0.2%.

 

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

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