Global markets continue to rally

Positive cues from the US jobs data had a rub-off effect and helped in overcoming uncertainty following downgrade of economic forecasts by the European Union. The European Union had earlier said that it expected the 17-country Eurozone's economy to shrink by 0.4% this year. This is 0.1% higher than its February prediction. The stock markets in Germany and France posted the sharpest gains of 3.9% and 2.7%, respectively. The UK market was up by 1.5%.

The Indian markets closed the week on a positive note with the shares in the FMCG space leading the gains. The Indian stock markets were up by 1.5%. The Brazil market surged by 2.3% backed by rally in the stock of largest airplane manufacturer Embraer. Even the Chinese market was up by 1.3% over the week. The Japanese market was the only loser as strengthening yen dimmed hopes of boosting corporate profits.

All the major global indices, barring the Japanese index, continued to have a positive outing over the week. A strong US jobs report by the Labor Department saw the unemployment rate being revised downwards to 7.5%, the lowest in four years. This helped allay fears of slowdown in the world's largest economy and bolstered the US markets which were up by 1.8%.