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The local market rallied 0.86% yesterday as investors regained confidence was restored by a rally on Wall Street on Tuesday. Information technology stocks led the local rally yesterday, while energy stocks were sold off amid a decline in commodity prices. The best performing stocks on the local index yesterday were led by Pexa Group (ASX:PXA) jumping over 6.4%, Link Administration Holdings (ASX:LNK) rallying almost 6% and Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN) lifting 5.44%. On the losing end of the market, Imugene (ASX:IMU) fell 4%, Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) shed 3.2% and Lovisa (ASX:LOV) lost 3.05%.
Wall Street took a dive on Wednesday amid further turbulence in the banking sector as leading bank Credit Suisse said earlier this week that it has found “certain material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting for 2021 and 2022”. The concerns out of Credit Suisse prompted the Swiss regulator to say it would give the country’s central bank Credit Suisse liquidity if necessary. Credit Suisse shares closed the midweek session down over 24%. Stocks recovered some ground in afternoon trade but the Dow Jones ended the day down 0.87%, and the S&P500 lost 0.7% but the tech-heavy Nasdaq actually rose 0.05% on Wednesday. US retail sales data out overnight also showed retail spend dropped 0.4% in February as consumers pulled back in spending amid rising interest rates and higher cost of living pressures. Consumers spent less on restaurants and department stores and more on staples goods retail. The Credit Suisse saga is the latest in the global financial sector turmoil following two U.S. banks collapsing earlier this week.
Over in Europe, markets had their worst session since Russia initiated war with Ukraine back in February 2022, as investors responded to the concerns out of banking giant Credit Suisse. The bank dropped to the bottom of the blue-chip index after its biggest lender, the Saudi National bank said it would not be able to offer it more financial help. The STOXX600 closed over 3% lower, Germany’s DAX fell 3.27%, the French CAC lost 3.58%, and in the UK, the FTSE100 tumbled 3.83%.
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