Global Stock Exchanges.

Byline: S. Kamal Hayder Kazmi

US stocks up as tech shares up on trade talks hope

US. stocks rose on Friday, as technology shares were boosted by signs of progress in the ongoing trade talks between the United States and China. Top trade negotiators from the two countries met to wrap up a week of talks on some of the thorniest issues in their trade war, with President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He set to meet at the Oval Office later in the day.

Stocks have largely risen this week on hopes of a trade deal, but a batch of weak data pointing to growing headwinds to the US economy put the brakes on the SandP 500's three-day rally on Thursday.

Tech stocks jumped 1.12 percent, leading gains among the 11 major SandP sectors and putting the benchmark index on track for its four weeks of gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite were on course to post nine straight weeks of gains.

Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and chipmakers led the rally in the tech sector. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index gained 1.08 percent, led by Intel Corp's 2.7 percent rise after Morgan Stanley lifted its rating to "overweight".

The Dow was up 168.11 points, or 0.65 percent, at 26,018.74. The SandP 500 was up 15.30 points, or 0.55 percent, at 2,790.18 and the Nasdaq was up 54.64 points, or 0.73 percent, at 7,514.34.

Pakistan stocks index falls in lacklustre trading

The stock market extended its bearish spell on Friday as there were no significant positive triggers to propel the benchmark index and trading remained lacklustre. The KSE-100 index dived nearly 270 points in the first hour of trading amid a lack of positive news.

At the end of trading, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 54.58 points, or 0.14percent, to settle at 40,016.13. Overall, trading volumes decreased to 98.7 million shares compared with Thursday's tally of 102.6 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.5 billion. Shares of 313 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 132 stocks closed higher, 162 declined and 19 remained unchanged. The Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 7.4 million shares, losing Rs0.07 to close at Rs13.36.

Japan stocks lower

Japan stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Mining, Marine Transport and Shipbuilding sectors led shares lower. At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.18percent. The best performers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Nippon Paper Industries...