Good morning from London, where the FTSE 100 off to a positive start to the day for the first time this week, rising past 7,500 points. Its all to do with stronger trading overnight in Asia, and particularly in Japan where car markers are starting to feel the benefit of an end to chip shortages.
Frankfurt’s DAX market is also feeling the benefit, reaching fresh record highs in today’s early trading. And our friends across the North Sea may soon have something else to smile about, with travel operator TUI saying this morning that its thinking of switching its listing from the LSE to Germany where its parent group is headquartered. TUI also announced a doubling of full-year earnings to 977mln euros this morning, news which has naturally bolstered its share price.
Way down at the other end of today’s league table is British American Tobacco, whose shares are down around 6% on news of a £25bln writedown and a sudden commitment to 'Building a Smokeless World', with the aim of deriving 50% of its revenue from ‘Non-combustibles’ by 2035.
Those are the main points so far, but stay tuned throughout the day for all the latest business updates.