Global Equities Markets Climb on US-Iran Peace Deal Hope
Global equities markets closed mostly higher as renewed hopes for a United States-Iran agreement boosted sentiment and eased pressures on oil prices.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones rose 0.55%, the S&P 500 gained 0.17%, and the NASDAQ edged 0.09% higher, marking a second straight day of gains as reports point to narrowing differences between Washington and Tehran.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 added 0.11% despite weak PMI data, while the Euro Stoxx 50 slipped 0.26% lower. In Asia-Pacific, optimism around the peace talks lifted the Nikkei 225 by 2.68%, the Hang Seng Index by 1.22%, and the ASX 200 by 0.36%.
The JSE closed lower on Thursday and is on track to posting a weekly loss as investors digested mixed domestic trade data and ongoing global uncertainty around oil supplies.
The All-Share Index declined 0.51% to 114 053 points, while the Top 40 Index fell 0.62% to 106 285. Resources (1.28%) bore the brunt of the selloff, weighed down by precious metals which plunged 2.06% as gold and other metals declined amid a resurgent dollar and sticky inflation concerns.
Industrials shed 0.93%, while Financials bucked the trend, rising 0.49%. Local investors continued to digest the higher local inflation print for April, which was driven by higher fuel prices linked to the United States-Iran war.
The Nigerian equities market closed today’s session marginally higher, as the benchmark AllShare Index (ASI) and market capitalisation both inched up by 0.05%.
The mild rebound came despite a negative market breadth, reflecting renewed bargain hunting in select medium-cap stocks such as UNILEVER, EUNISELL, UACN, TIP and INTBREW, which supported investor sentiment across key sectors.
Consequently, the ASI added 113.02 points to close at 249,175.39, while market capitalisation rose by ₦72.44 billion to settle at ₦159.73 trillion. Trading activity was mixed, with total volume surging 76.39% while total value declined 5.35%.
A total of 1.06 billion shares, valued at ₦30.97 billion, were exchanged in 62,448 deals. STERLINGNG led the volume chart, accounting for 30.52% of total trades, followed by JAPAULGOLD, FIDELITYBK and ACCESSCORP, while ARADEL topped the value chart with 16.37% of total traded value.
Market breadth closed negative, with 19 gainers against 44 losers. ABCTRANS led the gainers’ table with a 10.00% appreciation, alongside gains in UNILEVER, ACADEMY and EUNISELL.
On the downside, BERGER recorded the steepest decline, followed by LEARNAFRCA, DAARCOMM and RTBRISCOE. Sectoral performance was largely negative, as three of the five major indices closed lower.
The Insurance, Oil & Gas and Industrial Goods sectors declined by 0.55%, 0.10% and 0.01%, respectively, while the Consumer Goods and Banking indices posted modest gains of 0.52% and 0.03%.
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