UK increasingly confident that vaccines work against Indian variant

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain is increasingly confident that vaccines are effective against the coronavirus variant first identified in India, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday.

“We have increasing confidence vaccines are effective against all variants, including the Indian variant,” he told parliament.

Housing shortage pushes mortgage purchase applications down

Vacation-home buyers boost mortgage market

Dan Roccato on home loans, lenders 

While demand for mortgage applications rose slightly in the past week, applications to purchase a home fell. 

"A decline in purchase applications was seen for both conventional and government loans. There continues to be strong demand for buying a home, but persistent supply shortages are constraining purchase activity, and building material shortages and higher costs are making it more difficult to increase supply" said Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting. 

The seasonally adjusted purchase index fell 4%, while interest in mortgage applications increased 1.2% from a week ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly survey. Interest in refinancing rose 4%. 

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The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.15% from 3.11% with mortgage rates hit their highest level in two weeks across most major loans. 

HOMEBUILDER CONFIDENCE HIGH DESPITE GROWING CONCERNS OVER PRICE, AVAILABILITY OF MATERIALS

The survey covers over 75% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications. It has been conducted weekly since 1990.

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Sensex drops 291 points; Nifty ends below 15,100

Profit booking at higher levels to led to the decline in benchmark indices, analysts said

Equity benchmark Sensex tumbled 291 points on Wednesday, weighed by losses in index majors HDFC twins, ICICI Bank and Kotak Bank amid a negative trend in global markets.

Profit booking at higher levels to led to the decline in benchmark indices, analysts said.

Giving up the 50,000 mark, the 30-share BSE index ended 290.69 points or 0.58% lower at 49,902.64. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty fell 77.95 points or 0.52% to 15,030.15.

Bajaj Finserv was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding around 2%, followed by HDFC, M&M, Bharti Airtel, UltraTech Cement and Kotak Bank.

On the other hand, Sun Pharma, Nestle India, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Auto and Axis Bank were among the gainers.

Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities, said domestic equities corrected after recording sharp upswing in the last two days.

Notably, profit-booking was visible in most counters. Barring pharma, realty and IT, most of key sectoral indices traded in red, he added.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai and Tokyo ended on a negative note. Equities in Europe were trading with losses in mid-session deals.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.96% lower at $67.36 per barrel.

Analog Devices Guides Q3 In Line With Estimates, Declares Dividend – Quick Facts

While reporting financial results for the second quarter on Wednesday, semiconductor company Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) provided earnings and revenue guidance for the third quarter, in line with analysts’ expectations.

For the third quarter, the company projects earnings in a range of $1.12 to $1.34 per share and adjusted earnings in a range of $1.50 to $1.72 per share on projected revenues between $1.63 billion and $1.77 billion.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $1.53 per share on revenues of $1.65 billion for the quarter. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

The company’s Board of Directors also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.69 per outstanding share of common stock, payable on June 8, 2021 to all shareholders of record at the close of business on May 28, 2021.

EU court backs Ryanair challenge to KLM, TAP state aid

Europe's second-highest court on Wednesday upheld Ryanair's fight against billions of euros in state aid granted to its rivals KLM and TAP but dismissed its challenge to a 10-billion-euro ($12.2 billion) Spanish fund for virus-hit companies.

"The General Court annuls the (European) Commission's decision to approve the Netherlands financial aid for the airline KLM amid the COVID-19 pandemic on the grounds of inadequate reasoning," the Luxembourg-based Court said.

Judges also annulled the EU executive's clearance of state aid for Portuguese carrier TAP, citing "an inadequate statement of reasons" by the Commission.

The court said the annulments and recovery of the state aid would be suspended pending new decisions by the Commission.

The cases are T-465/20 Ryanair v Commission, T-643/20 Ryanair v Commission and T-628/20 Ryanair v Commission.

Bitcoin price crash as cryptocurrencies plummet across board – Ethereum and Dogecoin hit

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Express.co.uk does not give financial advice. The journalists who worked on this article do not own cryptocurrency.

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