Global Stock Exchanges.

Byline: S. Kamal Hayder Kazmi

STOCK EXCHANGES AROUND THE WORLD

US stocks in broad-based rally

US stocks rose in a broad-based rally on Friday as stronger-than-expected job growth in April coupled with muted wage gains left investors upbeat about the outlook for the economy and interest rates. The Nasdaq registered a record high close, while the SandP 500 ended just shy of a record high finish.

The Labor Department said employers added 263,000 jobs in April, which blew past expectations, and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6 percent, the lowest level since December 1969. Average hourly earnings came in just shy of expectations, indicating muted inflationary pressure. The data supports the Federal Reserve's patient stance toward raising interest rates, which is a positive for stocks.

Boosting the SandP 500 and the Nasdaq, Amazon.com Inc rose 3.2%, after CNBC reported that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc has bought shares of the internet retailing giant for the first time. The consumer discretionary sector rose 1.5%, leading a rally among the 11 major SandP sectors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 197.16 points, or 0.75%, to 26,504.95, the SandP 500 gained 28.12 points, or 0.96%, to 2,945.64, and the Nasdaq Composite added 127.22 points, or 1.58%, to 8,164.00.

For the week, the SandP 500 and Nasdaq were up 0.2% while the Dow slipped 0.2%.

The upbeat reports have turned around the SandP 500 earnings estimate for the first quarter to a rise of almost 1% compared with the 2% decline projected at the start of April.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 3.77-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.85-to-1 ratio favored advancers. The SandP 500 posted 36 new 52-week highs and two new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 91 new highs and 30 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.47 billion shares, compared to the

KSE-100 extends losses, falls 425 points

Pakistan stock market continued to remain under bearish pressure on Friday and the benchmark index lost 425 points, which was the fourth consecutive session in the red.

At the end of trading, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 424.68 points, or 1.16percent, to settle at 36,122.95. Overall, trading volumes decreased to 64.3 million shares compared with Thursday's tally of 67.9 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs2.9 billion. Shares of 323 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 88 stocks closed higher, 218 declined and 17...