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Thursday, 28 March 2024

Global markets bounce after a trying week

Duration: 01:42s 0 shares 1 views

Global markets bounce after a trying week
Global markets bounce after a trying week

Stock markets rebounded from some of their recent huge losses on Friday, pulling further away from three-year lows as central banks and governments pledged masses of cash to reduce the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ciara Lee reports

After a week of violent sell-offs, global shares gained some composure on Friday (March 20).

Asian markets bounced back, marking the end of a week dominated by fears of a deep coronavirus-driven recession.

South Korean shares bounced 7.4%, though that still left them down more than 11% for the week.

Hong Kong markets got a boost as news of zero locally transmitted cases were reported in China for the second day in a row.

Though they still posted weekly losses as worries persisted over economic damage from the outbreak.

In Europe shares jumped for a second straight sessionas a wave of fiscal and monetary stimulus tempted investors back into equity markets.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up nearly 5% in early trade and on course to erase the entire week's declines.

Travel and leisure stocks jumped as much as 7% in a surprise move, leading gains among the major European subsectors,while energy firms also added around 7% on the back of a recovery in oil prices.

Bank stocks jumped over 4% from their lowest in three decades after the UK's central bank joined its European peers in suspending stress tests for 2020.

Still, the STOXX 600 was on track for its worst month since October 1987 as the rapidly spreading coronavirus forced several nations into lockdown.

Italian shares lagged other major stock markets as the death toll from COVID-19 in the country overtook that of China where the disease first emerged late last year.

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