Trading results for 28 April – 2 May 2025

The past week was met by investors with both anticipation and anxiety. After the explosive performance of the week before last, when stock indexes soared sky-high, making it one of the best in the past year and a half, it would have been naive to hope for a repeat. Still, while no one expected a miracle, many hoped the momentum would continue and finally break the negative trend of recent months. Fortunately, those hopes were fulfilled.

Of course, there was no question of a repeat of the more than 6% rise we saw in the NASDAQ Composite two weeks ago. However, all major U.S. indexes managed a confident gain of around 3%. The only slight underperformer was the broad-market S&P 500 index, which added a more modest 2.92%. The culprit here was clear – Apple (APPL), whose earnings report was the only one among the so-called Magnificent Seven (MAG7) that clearly disappointed investors. As a result, the company’s shares dropped by more than 3% on Friday, immediately after the publication of its financial results. Still, this was more an exception than the rule.

All other tech sector stocks felt confident over the past week, gaining on average 4.29%. The same goes for industrial companies, whose shares rose by about 4.17%. This was partly due to a cooling of the narrative around the introduction of new tariffs. Many investors seemed to think, “Maybe we’ll get through this,” and allowed themselves to breathe a little easier – though it's certainly too early to relax completely.

The biggest losers of the week were commodity and energy companies, which came under clear selling pressure due to falling prices for oil (down nearly 8% over the week) and gold (down 2.6%). While commodity companies still managed to hold on to a symbolic gain, the oil and gas sector was the only one among the 11 sectors to finish the week in negative territory, with an average decline of 0.38%.

The ITS index family also performed quite well. They lagged slightly behind their American counterparts, but only by a few tenths of a percentage point. The ITS World Index (ITSW), which tracks global companies, rose by 2.98% over the week, while the Islamic securities index ITS Shariah (ITSS) gained 2.64%.

This slight underperformance, particularly by the ITSW, can be attributed to the Chinese market being closed for the May Day holidays, missing out on the end-of-week rally. It is quite possible that the Chinese market will catch up at the start of the current week, which may in turn positively affect the index's performance.

Overall, the results of the past week can be considered quite positive. Investors have calmed somewhat: most companies’ quarterly reports exceeded expectations – both from analysts and market participants themselves. Talk of a possible recession has noticeably subsided, acting as a kind of sedative. As a result, we can say the market has stabilised, and it is quite likely we may soon see indexes move back towards the historical highs recorded in early February this year.