Global shares hit new record high, Japan, Spanish markets provide support
Global shares hit a fresh record high Wednesday, buoyed by the Japanese and Spanish shares performance.
The MSCI All-World stocks index moved above 493.00 earlier Wednesday. The index tracks the prices of 2,400 companies around the world.
Strong performance from Japanese shares
The index’s upward march was driven, in part, by a more than 20-year high closing level of Japan’s Nikkei index. The Nikkei 225 closed at 20,881.27, the highest level since 1996.
The index rose on positive trading across a number of industries including technology, industrials and retail.
FamilyMart UNY Holdings Co., Terumo Corp, SoftBank Group Corp., Machinery maker Fanuc Corp., and Recruit Holdings Co., where the top performers. The benchmark TOPIX index was also upbeat, closing at a fresh ten-year high for a second straight day.
Spanish recovery aids momentum
The MSCI index also received support from a recovery in Spanish stocks following the news the Catalonian leader Carles Puigdemont didn’t formally enact his declaration of independence.
This reassured investors, as has Spanish Prime Minster Mariano Rajoy’s move towards imposing direct rule on Catalonia following the state’s bid for secession.
The country’s IBEX 35 remains up over 1% in mid-afternoon trading. And, some analysts said the apparent failure of the Catalonian’s independence action, could work to reassure European markets in particular, that this isn’t something that will be common place.
Some banking stocks continued to support the rise, including Banco Sabadell and BBVA.
Don’t forget US stocks
Meanwhile, the US stock market performance has also played its part in the MSCI index rally. US President Donald Trump Wednesday reminded everyone of how successful US stocks have been during 2017.
He tweeted that the S&P 500 $5.2 trillion since the 2016 election, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average index has risen by over 20% over the same period.
And, if Trumps tax reforms are enacted, that has the potential to boost the US stock market even further. A fact the US president also mentioned in his tweets: “If Congress gives us the massive tax cuts (and reform) I am asking for, those numbers will grow by leaps and bounds,” he tweeted.
