US Stocks extend gains to fourth day

The US stock market finished volatile session higher on Friday, 18 March 2022, registering fourth day of consecutive gains, after talks between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping over the Ukraine crisis ended without big surprises.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping assured U.S. President Joe Biden that his country didn't want war in Ukraine during a highly anticipated, two-hour video conference on Friday, their first conversation since Russia's invasion last month.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index advanced 274.17 points, or 0.8%, to 34,754.93. The S&P500 index added 51.45 points, or 1.17%, to 4,463.12. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index gained 279.06 points, or 2.05%, to 13,893.84. For the week, the Nasdaq gained 8.1%, while the S&P 500 and the Dow spiked by 5.5% and 5.4%, respectively.

Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE exchange by 2210 to 1095 and 133 closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 3234 issues advanced, 1453 issues declined, and 214 issues unchanged.

Total 10 of 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes advanced, with top gaining industry were information technology (up 2.19%), consumer discretionary (up 2.18%), and communication services (up 1.44%).

ECONOMIC NEWS: US Leading Economic Index Rises In February- US leading economic index increased by 0.3% in February after falling by a revised 0.5% in January, the Conference Board reported on Friday. The increase by the leading index reflected positive contributions from seven of the ten indicators, including the interest rate spread, average weekly manufacturing hours, and average weekly initial jobless claims. The report also showed the coincident economic index climbed by 0.4% in February after rising by 0.3% in January. Meanwhile, the lagging economic index remained unchanged in February following a 0.7% advance in the previous month.

Among Indian ADR, HDFC Bank added 1.63% to $62.88, ICICI Bank added 0.69% to $18.98, Dr Reddy's Labs added 0.17% to $53.55, Wipro added 1.1% to $8.03, WNS Holdings rose 2.5% to $87.03, Tata Motors gained 1.8% to $28.59, and INFOSYS grew 2.25% to $25.04. Azure Power Global fell 9.3% to $19.35.

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