US Stocks extend gains to third day

The US stocks were mostly higher on Thursday, 17 March 2022, with the Dow, the NASDAQ, and the S&P500 indexes reversed early losses and finishing above unchanged line for third straight sessions.

The strength on the Wall Street partly reflected a widely anticipated U.S. interest rate hike, better than expected Labor Department jobless claims data and the Commerce Department housing starts reports.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index advanced 417.66 points, or 1.23%, to 34,480.76. The S&P500 index added 53.81 points, or 1.23%, to 4,411.67. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index gained 178.23 points, or 1.33%, to 13,614.78.

Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE exchange by 2624 to 719 and 100 closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 3504 issues advanced, 1197 issues declined, and 228 issues unchanged.

All 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes advanced, with top gaining industry were energy (up 3.48%), materials (up 1.95%), consumer discretionary (up 1.86%), and healthcare (up 1.61%) issues.

Market risk sentiments underpinned as investors took in stride the long-expected start of a U.S. monetary tightening. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a%age point on Wednesday as expected and forecast seven rate hikes for the year, in a bid to contain rising price pressures.

Shares of energy sector was the biggest%age gainer among the S&P's 11 major industry sectors, as oil prices rose 8% as the crude market rebounded from several days of losses with a renewed focus on supply shortages in coming weeks due to sanctions on Russia.

ECONOMIC NEWS: The Labor Department released a report showing initial jobless claims dipped to 214,000, a decrease of 15,000 from the previous week's revised level of 229,000.

A separate report from the Commerce Department showed housing starts rebounded by 6.8% to an annual rate of 1.769 million in February after plunging by 5.5% to a revised rate of 1.657 million in January. Meanwhile, the report showed building permits slumped by 1.9% to an annual rate of 1.859 million in February after rising by 0.5% to a revised rate of 1.895 million in January.

Among Indian ADR, HDFC Bank added 0.37% to $61.87, ICICI Bank added 0.27% to $18.85, Dr Reddy's Labs added 2.1% to $53.46, and Azure Power Global rose 7.1% to $21.33. Wipro fell 0.13% to $7.94, WNS Holdings fell 2.56% to $84.91, Tata Motors fell 1.34% to $28.08, and INFOSYS sank 2.47% to $24.49.

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