The US markets ended the Friday’s trade slightly in green ahead of Christmas, as traders opted to buy beaten down socks after two days of continuous drubbing. Sentiments remained up-beat after the Commerce Department released a report showing a much bigger than expected increase in new home sales in the U.S. in the month of November. The new home sales surged up by 5.2 percent to an annual rate of 592,000 in November from 563,000 in October. The street had expected new home sales to rise by 3 percent to a rate of 580,000. A separate report from the University of Michigan said consumer sentiment improved by even more than initially estimated in the month of December. The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index for December was upwardly revised to 98.2 from the preliminary reading of 98.0. The street had expected the index to remain at 98.0, which was still well above the final November reading of 93.8. With the unexpected upward revision, the consumer sentiment index reached its highest levels since January of 2004.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 14.93 points or 0.07 percent to 19,933.81, Nasdaq jumped 15.27 points or 0.28 percent to 5,462.69 and S&P 500 was up by 2.83 points or 0.13 percent to 2,263.79.
The Indian ADRs closed mostly in green; Dr. Reddy’s Lab gained 0.42%, HDFC Bank rose 0.11%, Wipro added 0.02% and ICICI Bank was up by 0.02%. On the other hand, Infosys was down by 0.05%.