ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank ADRs witness strong gains
U.S. stock market closed higher on Friday, 16 May 2014 after an abrupt late-day reversal. Stocks traded in negative territory for the most of the session, after mixed economic reports in the morning.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 44.50 points, or 0.3%, to 16,491.31, limiting the weekly loss to 0.6%. The Nasdaq Composite gain on Friday helped the index to register a weekly gain. The index ended the day up 21.30 points, or 0.5%, at 4,090.59 and gained 0.5% over the week. The S&P 500 added 7.01 points, or 0.4%, to 1,877.86 and finished the week with a slight loss. It touched record levels during the week.
Nine of ten sectors ended in the green. The energy sector was the sole loser.
U.S. economic news on Friday was mixed. A report on housing starts said they surged in April to hit the fastest growth pace in five months, rising 13.2% to 1.07 million and topping forecasts. Building permits rose 8.0% to 1.08 mln (consensus 1.008 mln).
Separately, the preliminary May reading of the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters consumer sentiment, meanwhile, unexpectedly fell to a reading of 81.8 from 84.1 in April.
Among major stocks under focus, Shares of J.C. Penney soared 16% after the midprice department store on Thursday posted a better-than-expected 6.2% same-store sales gain. Shares in General Motors fell 1% on news Berkshire Hathaway unloaded the stock.
Bullion metals ended lower on Friday, 16 May 2014. Gold fell on Friday as encouraging U.S. housing data weighed on its appeal as a hedge against economic weakness.
Gold for June delivery fell 20 cents to settle at $1,293.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. For the week, it gained roughly 0.5%. July silver lost 15.5 cents, or 0.8%, to close at $19.33 an ounce. It saw a weekly gain of 1.1%.
Crude Oil futures climbed on Friday, 16 May 2014 as a jump in April U.S. housing starts and the coming summer-driving season raised expectations for energy demand. Crude oil for June delivery rose 52 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $102.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices ended last week at $99.99, lower by 2%.
Trading volume at the NYSE hit 763 mln shares on Friday, which was the heaviest all week.
Indian ADRs closed mixed on Friday. In the banking space, ICICI Bank shot up 10.01% to $51.01 per ADR and its rival HDFC Bank jumped 6.11% to $46.18. Among others, Tata Motors gained 2.7% to $40.68 whereas Dr Reddy's Laboratories lost 0.25% to $40.66. In the technology space, Infosys declined 1.04% to $53.20 and Wipro slipped 1.19% to $11.60.
The coming week could be characterized by low volume again. There isn't much on either the economic or earnings calendars and the Memorial Day holiday will be waiting at the end of the week.
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