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European shares inched higher on Friday, attempting to build on strong gains from earlier this week, as investors focussed on Russia-Ukraine peace talks that has shown no tangible progress so far. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.2% by 0814 GMT and was headed for its best weekly performance since November 2020.

This is an opportunity for investors and advisors to revisit their long-term portfolio allocation strategy towards internationally diversified funds. The well-known home bias of investors everywhere can be looked into during this phase of the markets.

Investors sold U.S. high yield funds to the turn of $1.86 billion and pulled $3.8 billion out of U.S. short/intermediate investment-grade funds, marking a 10th weekly outflow in a row.

Gold has shed about 2.7% so far this week with investors initially pricing in possibilities of aggressive interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Major investors have called Russia "uninvestable", but DIY investors - many of whom took up stock-picking during the "stonks" trading frenzy in the pandemic - have been undeterred.

The broad-based S&P 500 had lost 0.3 percent to 4,400.15, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was 0.3 percent lower at 13,578.31.

The five-year contract of ICICI Bank’s CDS, which acts as a shield against likely default on outstanding debt securities by an issuer, yielded 121.53 versus 105.74 on February 21.

Total forex reserves were at $622.2 billion for the week ended March 11, compared with around $632 billion a week earlier, showed Reserve bank of India (RBI) data.

In a quarterly event known as triple witching, roughly $3.5 trillion of single-stock and index-level options are set to expire, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. At the same time, more near-the-money options are maturing than at any time since 2019 -- suggesting a bevy of investors will actively trade around those positions.

The Fed announced Wednesday that it would start raising interest rates for the first time since 2018, and the initial reaction of financial markets was welcoming. The stock market rose, bond yields wavered and commodity prices moderated.