US markets ended modestly higher on Friday to make their third consecutive week of gains ahead of the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors from the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan meeting in the UK. The markets continued to benefit from the recent upward momentum despite a relatively quiet day in terms of news with the Dow and S&P reaching new record closing highs, while the Nasdaq rose to another twelve-year high. Dow was led by gains in Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Priceline .com. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that risks persist in wholesale funding markets used frequently by Wall Street brokers to finance securities trading and the shadow banking system continued to pose a threat to financial stability, and that bank funding markets might still not be able to cope with a major default. In addition, Bernanke also said the central bank was closely monitoring asset markets for signs of excessive risk taking
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 35.87 points or 0.24 percent to 15,118.49, the Nasdaq advanced 27.41 points or 0.80 percent to 3,436.58 and the S&P 500 rose 7.03 points or 0.43 percent to 1,633.70.
Indian ADRs ended mostly higher on Friday, HDFC Bank was up by 0.38%, Tata Motors up by 0.40%, Dr. Reddy’s up by 1.89%. On the other hand Wipro was down by 0.07% and Infosys was down by 0.40%.
