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FTSE 100 Live: Stocks to jump after record day; US and Iran trade strikes

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Welcome back to the City PM FTSE 100 live blog

Welcome back to the City PM liveblog.

It’s Friday morning and the FTSE 100 is set to open into the green, following two consecutive days of record gains for the blue-chip index.

The FTSE 100 reached a record intraday high on Thursday – for the second day running – but failed to make a new close record after falling rapidly in the afternoon, ending the day at a loss of 0.1 per cent, or 11 points, at 10,897.

“It’s been another cracking day for London markets boosted in part by investors looking for more grounded alternatives to mega cap AI spenders. Though the FTSE 100 couldn’t quite bust out a fresh record close as sentiment pivoted as the day progressed,” said Danni Hewson, AJ Bell’s head of financial analysis.

The Bank of England voted to leave interest rates unchanged on Thursday, though the number of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members voting for a hike grew from two to three, with Catherine Mann joining hawks Huw Pill and Megan Greene.

But Andrew Bailey, the Bank’s Governor, argued that it was “too early” to conclude that the UK was set for a long period of high inflation, said he was focused on getting consumer prices to stabilise at two per cent growth, as per the target rate mandated to the Bank.

Wall Street made huge gains overnight. The tech-heavy Nasdaq surged 2.8 per cent while the blue-chip S&P gained 1.7 per cent. This comes despite growing tensions in the Middle East, after the US launched “heavy” strikes on Iran and its proxies in Iraq and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps took responsibility for strikes on Kuwait and Jordan.

We’ll be bringing you the latest market updates and analysis as the day develops.

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