Shares up, gold down as technology earnings lift sentiment

WORLD shares rose broadly yesterday, with technology stocks lifting Wall Street, while gold neared its biggest weekly loss this year as investors shrugged off concerns about interest rate hikes and the US dollar dipped.

Stocks climbed across Asia and Europe, while soaring shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP helped the US technology sector surge.

MSCI’s key index of stock markets across the globe gained 0.61pc, with the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rising 0.19pc and emerging market stocks up 1.12pc.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 164.91 points, or 0.66pc, to 25,127.39, the S&P 500 gained 20.65 points, or 0.76pc, to 2,724.61 and the Nasdaq Composite added 54.12 points, or 0.75pc, to 7,264.20.

Modest gains for the US dollar meant the euro was set to post its second biggest weekly loss in nearly four months.

Caution over the Italian election also gave the country’s bonds a tough week.

Polls point to a hung parliament in Italy, where no single party or coalition has an outright majority to form a government, and analysts expect short-term volatility that could weigh on traditionally sensitive Eurozone markets. “Some long-forgotten patterns return to euro bond markets with (German) bunds rallying while Italy sells off,” said Commerzbank rates strategist Christoph Rieger.

Gold’s spot market price dropped 0.3pc. It has so far shed about 1.5pc this week, its biggest weekly decline since early December.