FTSE 100 slides despite strong earnings but Wall Street picks up
The FTSE 100 slipped today despite a strong set of corporate earnings on a slow day for Europe’s markets.
Across the Atlantic, however, Wall Street showed signs of gains after another positive start for tech stocks.
London’s blue-chip index fell 0.1 per cent over the course of the day, a second straight session of losses after slipping to a stronger pound yesterday.
Meanwhile, the mid-cap FTSE 250 advanced 0.9 per cent, after pharma firm Vectura climbed 33 per cent to its best day on record after agreeing a £958m takeover by global investment firm Carlyle.
Marks & Spencer also added 6.5 per cent after posting an annual pre-tax profit of £50.3m, beating analysts’ forecasts of £43m.
Market movers
The FTSE 100’s biggest riser was Primark owner ABF, which picked up 2.6 per cent, followed by Aveva, which gained 2.5 per cent.
Close behind was chemicals firm Croda, which added 2.3 per cent after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to “buy” from “sell”.
Betting company Flutter Entertainment and Reckitt Benckiser also rose 1.7 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.
Testing firm Intertek was the day’s biggest faller, dropping by 5.0 per cent, followed by developer British Land’s 4.2 per cent hit.
On Wall Street
US markets opened higher again this afternoon after the Federal Reserve reaffirmed that it would not alter its current monetary policy.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way, rising 0.6 per cent, with a string of tech giants all up on the day.
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones were both also up 0.2 per cent after a couple of hours of trading.
The Fed’s comments also pushed the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to a two-week low of 1.557 per cent.
Around the world
Asian shares rose today, and the US dollar languished near multi-month lows after Fed officials reaffirmed a dovish monetary policy stance.
MCSI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan advanced 0.5 per cent to a two-week high, while Japan’s Nikkei added 0.3 per cent.
Chinese blue-chips rose 0.2 per cent after posting their biggest daily gain in 11 months yesterday, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shot up 0.9 per cent.
Analysts at Jefferies said a weak dollar could help boost global trade and emerging markets by lowering global prices of goods and services.
“A weak dollar should underwrite emerging market performance despite very mixed vaccine roll-outs to date,” they said in a note.