Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange before the closing bell on Wall Street in New York City in January. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 12 (UPI) — U.S. stocks grew on Friday with the S&P 500 index marking an increase for the fourth straight week.
On the the other hand, five of China’s largest state-owned companies announced this week that they would delist from the New York Stock Exchange.
Market data from Nasdaq shows that the S&P 500 grew 1.73% on Friday to close the week at 4,280.15 points, with a weekly gain of about 3.3%.
The Nasdaq Composite grew about 2.1% on Friday for a weekly gain of about 3.1%, also rising for the fourth straight week to close above 13,000 points for the first time since April 25.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 424.38 points Friday to end the week up about 2.92%, Nasdaq data shows.
The S&P 500 is on track for its longest weekly winning streak since November 2021, CNBC noted.
The index rose 9.1% in July for its biggest monthly gain since November 2020 when the first announcements about effective coronavirus vaccines were made.
The markets were again boosted by gains in tech stocks with shares of Apple rising 2% after Bloomberg reported that the company expects to maintain sales of the iPhone despite inflation.
“The fact we’re starting to see energy prices come down, that might be a sign of what is more to come for other inflation indicators,” Anastasia Amoroso, chief investment strategist at iCapital Network, told Yahoo Finance Live.
“We’re starting to chip away at this inflation issue, and that’s a big catalyst for the markets.”
The market news came as five of China’s biggest state-owned companies announced in filings to Hong Kong Exchanges on Friday that they will delist from the New York Stock Exchange in coming weeks.
PetroChina said in its statement that it will apply for a voluntary delisting of its American Depositary Shares citing a “relatively limited trading volume” and “the considerable administrative burden for performing the disclosure obligations as necessary for maintaining the listing of the ADSs.”
Sinopec, in a similar statement, said that it intends to file to delist its depositary shares by Aug. 29, and that the delisting from the New York Stock Exchange is expected to become effective 10 days later. Sinopec’s Shanghai Petrochemical also said it would be delisting its depositary shares.
China Life Insurance Company and Chalco, an aluminum producer, also made filings announcing that they would delist their companies.
The delisting of the Chinese companies comes as tensions between Beijing and the United States have been growing.