Gyrating markets

Despite unattractive economic fundamentals, US stock markets are still pushing highs. In early October Indexes posted highs: On October 1, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 14,087.55 – the first climb above 14,000 since mid-July. On October 5, the Standard & Poor’s 500 rose to a record 1,557.59, while earlier in the day the DJIA hit a record intraday high of 14,124.54 while the Nasdaq rose to 2,784.93 – its highest since January 2001. While they have come off a bit during the month, the US markets are buoyed by optimism.

And its not just the US. India’s Sensex started the month breaking through the 18,000 mark and hit an all-time intraday high on 9 October closing at 18,327.42, up 788.85 points on the day, the largest-ever daily points gain. That represented a rise of more than 32% this year on the back of record inflows of overseas funds. But then on 18 October the index dropped 9% in one day, when regulators commented that curbs on foreign inflows might be appropriate. By the end of the month, the Sensex is nearly at 20,000!

And in China the CSI 300 hit a high of 5,877 on 16 October and has traded above 5,300 for October, ending the month at 5,688.

The MSCI Barra World index shown here illustrates October’s gyrations, ending the month on an all-time high of 1,682.

One thought on “Gyrating markets

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.