- FTSE 100 closes 29 points lower at 7743
- Ex-dividend stocks weigh, including NatWest, Anglo
- Oil price and supermajors lifted by new forecasts
17:01pm: FTSE 100 closes 29 points lower
The FTSE 100 has closed 29 points lower at 7,743 after NatWest and Anglo American both experienced 5% falls.
It comes after the two companies went ex-dividend, with Haleon and Entain similarly experiencing 2% and 1.5% drops respectively.
Attempting to push the index higher was a sole effort from conference company Informa, which rose 2.5%.
Informa appears to still be benefiting from last week's results, which saw revenues jump by 30% and underlying earnings exceed expectations.
The FTSE 250 dropped 77 points lower after strong gains from Trainline (+15%), Vistry (+8%) and Helios Towers (+7.3%).
AG Barr also lifted a little over 2% after it warned a potential 195 jobs could be at risk from a reorganisation of the business.
The changes will result in the closures of its Moston, Wednesbury and Dagenham operations in England.
4.04pm: Airlines down
Airlines are among the bigger fallers today, potentially due to the prospect of higher fuel prices. British Airways owner IAG is down 3.3%, while among the mid-caps Wizz and easyJet (which rejoins the FTSE 100 next Monday) are down 4% and 3.4% respectively.
3.40pm: More US buyers emerge for TikTok
Questions linger over the fate of the immensely popular social media app TikTok after the US House of Representatives passed a bill forcing Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest or face a full-on ban.
Canada is also scrutinising the company.
Former US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, whose Liberty Strategic Capital vehicle led a $1 billion rescue for lender NYCB last week, raised the prospect of buying TikTok alongside another consortium of investors.
Calling TikTok "a great business,” Mnuchin told CNBC that, “I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold”.
But ByteDance would likely bring legal challenges to the ban, which would inevitably delay the forced divestment.
“While there are many questions around its ultimate path in the Senate and if this bill ever sees an actual vote, yesterday's actions in our view represent a very slippery slope around social media restrictions, First Amendment rights, and potential retaliatory actions China can head towards the likes of Apple and Tesla and US Big Tech,” analysts at Wedbush said of the matter.
Rumble, which surged higher earlier in the week after offered itself as a possible buyer or at least as a member of a consortium, fell 9% today.
3.29pm: More looking ahead
Looking ahead to next week, more investors and economists are thinking about the Federal Reserve decision on Wednesday and Bank of England meeting on Thursday.
Despite stronger PPI inflation and weaker retail sales earlier, financial markets continue to bet on a June start to the Fed's rate easing, based on futures prices.
Looking at the latter, the BoE's monetary policy committee will start cutting borrowing costs in the third quarter, according to a Reuters poll, although 40% of economists predict rates will be trimmed between April and the end of June.
Stefan Koopman at Rabobank says he, like most, expects the MPC will hold the rate at 5.25% next week and he is among those expecting to wait until September.
"We may see another three-way split in the vote," he says, with the current guidance suggesting the next move is likely to be a cut but "we don’t think that the MPC will drop a strong hint on the timing of that cut at this meeting."
He adds: "We think the Bank of England will trail behind the Fed and the ECB, with the first rate cut expected in September. This is still anticipated to occur well before core inflation is on track to reach 2%."
In London the FTSE is down over 40 points now, while acorss the Atlantic, all three major indices are in the red, led by the S&P 500, down 0.35%, with Dow down 0.3% and Nasdaq falling 0.2%.
2.57pm: Dot plots
The downwards shift in markets is due to US factory gate inflation "adding to fears that inflation pressures are building, and central banks may not be able to cut interest rates as fast as predicted", says market analyst Kathleen Brooks at XTB.
This has knocked US stocks, with the big indices down, even though most of the tech megacaps except for Nvidia are higher.
Europe is a mixed bag, the FTSE 100 is lower, while other European indices are managing to eke out a gain.
"The chances are that the Fed will stick to its recent message that rate cuts are coming, but the Fed needs to take its time," Brooks said.
The Fed’s 'dot plot' rate forecasts will be a big focus next week, with December's dot plot suggesting three rate cuts this year, which is roughly what the market now expects, however Brooks wonders if this could be revised down.
"Right now, the market is expecting the first rate cut to come in July, with no rate cuts currently expected for the first half of this year. If the Fed err on the cautious side next week, then rate cuts could be pushed back further than this summer."
2.35pm: FTSE falling, US indices mixed
The FTSE 100 is continuing to sink lower even though the major New York stock indices are now paring losses, with the Nasdaq in positive territory.
Major SpaceX shareholder Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC (LSE:SMT) (Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC (LSE:SMT)) has a large stake, making up 4% of its portfolio.
SMT shares are down 0.8% however, dropping in afternoon trading as it also has big stakes in Tesla (down 1.5% so far today), Nvidia (down 2.6%) and ASML (down 0.7%) among its top five holdings.
2.05: SpaceX success with Starship interplanetary rocket
SpaceX's giant Starship rocket, which boss Elon Musk wants to eventually take people to Mars, a few minutes ago reached space on its third launch attempt.
The 120-metre tall rocket blasted off successfully from the company's Boca Raton base on the Texas coast at just before 9.30am Eastern standard time on Thursday.
Just over a quarter of an hour later, Starship, the upper part of the two-stage vehicle, reached orbital velocity and not long after was coasting in space.
Watch the super hot plasma field grow as Starship re-enters the atmosphere! pic.twitter.com/to4UOF2Kpd
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2024
SpaceX is not publicly listed but FTSE 100 investment trust Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC (LSE:SMT) has a large stake, making up 4% of its portfolio.
2pm: Stocks all into the red
The major stock market indices in London are all in the red as Wall Street fails to inject the expected positivity following more hot inflation numbers.
Adding to its earlier losses, the FTSE 100 is down 25 points or 0.3% to 7,747.49, with the gains on the FTSE 250 wiped out now, down 3 points at 19,560.78.
The mood has been soured as US stocks have opened in the red, with the Dow Jones down 0.27%, the Nasdaq Composite 0.29% and the S&P 500 falling 0.33%.
In Europe, Germany's Dax and Spain's IBEX are both lower, while in Paris the CAC is higher and in Milan the FTSE MIB index is flat.
Earlier, European share prices pushed to new records for a third session in a row, with the German DAX rising 0.3% to break above the 18,000 level.
1.10pm: Do investors care about inflation any more?
"The thing is, do investors really care if inflation comes in a bit hotter than expected?" - that is market analyst David Morrison at Trade Nation.
"Tuesday’s CPI report did. There was the briefest knee-jerk fall before equities turned on a penny to end that session sharply higher. The news did little to alter expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut rates in June.
"Yet while there’s now a 99% chance that the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged at next week’s meeting, it would be rash to write this meeting off as a non-event."
Andrew Hunter, deputy chief US economist at Capital Economics, says the rebound in retail sales in February "appears to reflect the unwinding of the drag on sales from the winter storms in early January, but the details suggest that the strength of consumers over the second half of last year is fading".
Elsewhere, the bigger-than-expected 0.6% m/m increase in final demand PPI was principally due to an increase in energy, with gasoline prices up 6.8%.
"The upshot is that we think core PCE prices increased by 0.30% in February, which would leave the 12m rate unchanged at 2.8%, with the 6m annualised rate accelerating to 2.9%."
1/2 PPI inflation just came in twice as high as expected????. Translation? The @federalreserve's current policy is far too lose, meaning the back-breaking prices all of us are dealing w/ are about to surge EVEN HIGHER. Powell's Dec. 13th pivot, as I've stated, was a HUGE mistake. pic.twitter.com/itGzeKrPIP
— Gordon Johnson (@GordonJohnson19) March 14, 2024
1pm: Wall Street to inject some positivity
New York is waking up and feeling positive, despite more hot inflation data and higher oil prices adding to those worries.
Dow Jones futures contracts are up 0.3% ahead of the opening bell in New York, with S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures both up 0.2%.
This will not be with the assistance of Nvidia, which continues to be more volatile than bitcoin, with the shares down 1.7% in pre-market trading, while other 'Mag 7' names like Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Tesla trading higher, with Meta Platforms flat.
US factory gate inflation was shown to be accelerating, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The producer prices index increased 0.6% month-on-month and 1.6% year-on-year in February, up from 0.3% MoM and 1.0% YoY the month before.
Both PPI measures were higher than expected, with the consensus forecasts for 0.3% monthly and 1.2% yearly.
US retail sales were up 0.6% on the month, lower than the 0.8% expected. Core retail sales were up 0.3% versus the consensus forecast of 0.5%.
This comes ahead of the US Federal Reserve meeting next week.
PPI is re-accelerating, up 0.6% m/m on headline vs expectations of 0.3%.
This means there is additional inflationary potential in the pipeline should companies decide to pass on higher costs to consumers aka "cost push inflation"
Usually a 2-3 month lag time for PPI -> CPI. pic.twitter.com/ZubiWPTJDB
— Markets & Mayhem (@Mayhem4Markets) March 14, 2024
12.44: Thoughts on oil
Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index noted that the WTI price of oil also had broken the $80 barrier, with other factors supporting oil and other commodities include optimism over China.
Technical analysis points towards WTI, the US measure of oil prices, hitting the mid-$80s, he adds.
"Oil investors are expecting strong demand from China while the ongoing supply cuts by the OPEC+ means there is the potential for a supply deficit," Razaqzada says, noting these gains come hot on the heels of a sharp rally in copper and silver prices and following gold’s breakout to a record high last week.
"The rise in key commodity prices is in part due to optimism about a Chinese demand recovery," he says.
On copper, he says gains coincided with a report of an agreement being reached among some Chinese smelters to cut production due to a collapse in processing fees, which he says is raising fears about a shortage of refined metal.
"Chinese smelters, which are the leading global producers and consumers of refined copper, are encountering financial difficulties due to declining fees for converting copper concentrate into metal. This situation raises the possibility of production cuts, which could result in a supply shortage."
12.39pm: Oil supply deficit
Almost reaching $85 today, up 3% so far this week, the price of crude oil has hit its highest level in three months, with the International Energy Agency warning that there may be a supply deficit.
The price of Brent crude futures hit $84.82, the highest since November, as the IEA said it expected Opec to keep restricting supply until the end of the year.
“On that basis, our balance for the year shifts from a surplus to a slight deficit, but oil tanks may get some relief as the massive volumes of oil on water reach their final destination,” it said in a statement.
There could still be a surplus in the second half, “depending on when the alliance does unwind the cuts, by how much, and the pace of it,” Toril Bosoni, head of the agency’s oil market division, told Bloomberg.
The IEA forecasts world oil demand will grow to 1.3 million barrels a day, a rise of 110,000 barrels, in 2024 due to a stronger outlook for US shale production.
Increased shipping fuel was a factor as tankers take the longer way around Africa to avoid Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
12.28pm: Mixed performance
Just after midday, the Footsie is being held just underwater by a handful of large names going ex-dividend.
The FTSE 100 is down 8 points or 0.1% lower at 7,764.17, while the FTSE 250 is up 44 points or 0.2% at 19,608.16.
Leading the blue-chips is Burberry PLC, up 2% and continuing a positive run since reports emerged that it is looking for a new CEO.
According to website Miss Tweed, citing several industry sources, Burberry's chairman is interviewing potential candidates to replace the company's current boss, Jonathan Akeroyd. The company is said not to have commented directly on the matter, but only confirmed that it's a normal course of business to look at "succession planning".
Other retailers are also up, including Frasers Group PLC (LSE:FRAS), JD Sports Fashion PLC (LSE:JD.) and Next PLC (LSE:NXT).
Other retail sector news is that John Lewis signalling more jobs cuts and Primark planning to expand its click and collect trial across further stores, according to bosses at parent ABF.
Housing stocks are also prominent on the leaderboard, including Rightmove, Barratt and Taylor Wimpey after results from Savills and Vistry today.
Vistry shares are up 8% - still room for improvement say some analysts - and Savills has picked up after a slow start, up 4%.
Trainline is topping the mid-cap risers, up 10% with investors and analysts reacting warmly to its results.
11.41am: Primark embracing digital but not deliveries
Primark, part of Associated British Foods PLC (LSE:ABF), is planning to extend its click-and-collect trial across further stores, potentially overseas.
Paul Marchant, boss of the fast fashion chain, said the current trial across 57 stores for women's and children's clothing could be expanded to "more stores, maybe even more markets".
Speaking at a sector show organised by Retail Week and The Grocer, Marchant said: “It plays into our bricks-and-mortar strategy because it is driving more customers to the stores. They’re filling a big basket online to collect, when they come into store they’re then adding a second basket."
He batted off suggestions of moving into home delivery, saying it did not make sense for the brand financially, due to its low average selling price and costs of fulfillment.
11.20am: FTSE thoughts
Let's get some wider views on markets from the bevvy of City talking heads popping up in my inbox.
Russ Mould at AJ Bell says the FTSE is being supported by a tick higher in oil prices above $84 a barrel that is lifting heavyweights BP and Shell.
“This helped outweigh some big names trading without the rights to their dividend and weakness engendered by fears the move higher in crude, off the back of lower US inventories, might make inflation more stubborn and push back rate cuts," he says.
On OSB Group's big share price fall earlier, Mould says: “The challenge posed by so-called challenger banks is looking more and more feeble as, following Virgin Money’s proposed takeover by Nationwide, OSB reports a substantial drop in profit as its mortgage customers refinance rather than risk an onerous standard variable rate. A £50 million buyback has done very little to cushion the blow for investors.”
Sophie Lund-Yates at Hargreaves Lansdown describes London's blue-chip index thusly: "The FTSE 100 has broadly held onto its gains as investors continue to cheer the news that recession looks like a thing of the past.
"Hopes of interest rate cuts this summer have been raised, and while there is certainly no guaranteed course of action, the market’s forward-looking eyes seem to be focussed on a brighter near-term, even though there hasn’t been a fresh injection of enthusiasm in early trading."
On AstraZeneca's deal to buy French company Amolyt Pharma for $1.05 billion, she adds: "The deal adds weight behind Astra’s rare disease division, and includes a hypoparathyroidism treatment currently in Phase III trials. This addition to the pipeline looks to be potentially lucrative."
On Savills, she says profits are slumping as it "pays the price of restructuring".
"There’s also growing hope that more palatable interest rates will start to trickle down to housing activity fairly soon. While Savills has seen a large reduction in its net cash position, the group still has an incredibly robust balance sheet, allowing it flexibility in tough times. As a market leader, Savills has a head start, but there is also a growing awareness that the estate agent market is ripe for significant disruption, so even the biggest fish in the pond needs to remain nimble."
Yesterday mining giant Glencore was reported by the FT as facing pressure from an activist investor to change its primary listing from London to Sydney, with commentary including accusations that London is no longer the home of mining, which doesn’t quite reflect the significant other names in the sector still housed by the city.
"But it does speak to the growing pressures faced by policymakers to make London a more attractive place to list. Glencore’s performance has been dented by lower commodity prices, particularly in its coal portfolio in recent months," says Lund-Yates.
"Disappointing share price performances are often a trigger for activist attention, and there are also some Glencore specific reasons for the weakness in valuation. A change of listing won’t magically fix these, but arguably could help the group refocus."
10.47am: More mid-cap results, Savills and IG
Another mid-cap with results out today is Property services firm Savills PLC (LSE:SVS), one that is seen as a good bellwether for its market.
Results showed resilience despite lower transaction volumes, with the shares up 0.7%.
Doing better is IG Group PLC, the online CFD broker and stockbroker, up 4% after reporting on a solid third quarter with revenues flattish and the full-year expected to be in line with market projections.
In a separate statement, IG said operations chief Jon Noble is stepping down as director with immediate effect and finance chief Charlie Rozes is to leave the group at the end of July.
CEO Breon Corcoran had warm words for both, so it seems nothing untoward has led to the double departure.
Analysts at Peel Hunt say: "Active client numbers improved a little on the previous quarter; similarly, new active clients were slightly better. For the nine-month period, revenues are now trailing last year by 6%, despite interest income more than doubling to £105m.".
10.31am: Shell waters down CEO pay, emissions targets
Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL) has a pair of interesting items this morning, watering down carbon emissions targets and revealing the size of chief executive Wael Sawan's pay package in his first year.
Sawan, who started early last year, received a total of £7.9 million, including an annual bonus of £2.7 million and a basic salary of £1.4 million, despite profit dropping 30%.
This was from the oil supermajor's annual report out this morning, and compares to previous boss Ben van Beurden's £9.7 million pay in 2022.
Shell also announced a revised target of a 15-20% reduction in carbon intensity from its energy products sold in 2030 versus a 2016 baseline, compared to a target of 20% by 2030 and 45% by 2035 in its 2021 energy transition strategy report.
It said its aim continues to be to halve emissions from its direct operations (Scope 1 and 2 emissions) by 2030, compared with 2016 on a net basis.
By the end of last year it said more than 60% of this target had been achieved.
9.58am: Vistry vrooms to 2yr high
Housebuilder Vistry Group PLC (LSE:VTY) has climbed 5% to what looks to be a new two-year high after reporting results.
Coming a day after larger rival Persimmon disappointed, the FTSE 250 group announced plans to increase home construction this year, buoyed by a resilient demand for affordable homes, particularly from the private rented sector.
A further £100 million share buyback was announced today in lieu of the final dividend and the company says it will evaluate further special distributions throughout the year depending on progress on capital release.
Analysts at UBS said Vistry already mostly pre-announced results "so there were no real surprises".
Initial guidance is for over 17.5k volumes, implying 8.5% year-on-year growth, around 5% higher than UBS expected, though margins are guided to decline, which was also largeley expected.
"Overall we think company-collected consensus of £430m PBT will not change."
The FTSE 250 index has now climbed into the green, up 0.16% to 19,596.
The FTSE 100, meanwhile, is back in the red, down one point at 7,771.
9.20am: Deliveroo 'a bit soft', Trainline 'better than expected', say analysts
There's been a relative slew of larger company results today after a quiet few days.
One of these is Deliveroo PLC (LSE:ROO), whose shares climbed 4% in early trade but are now up less than 1%.
Underlying earnings (EBITDA) came in at £85 million for the past year, beating forecasts, with the meal delivery company projecting further progress and a move into positive cash flow in 2024.
Chief executive Will Shu highlighted Deliveroo's strides towards profitability and enhanced delivery speed and reliability for customers.
Shore Capital analyst Bradley Hughes says results and guidance "appears in-line to slightly softer" versus consensus expectations, with gross transaction value growth guidance "not particularly supportive of the meaningful market share gains required, in our view, to reach #1 status in key markets".
The lack of additional share buybacks was also noted by Hughes, who reiterated his 'sell' rating, and by UBS, who also felt guidance was soft but maintained its 'buy' recommendation.
Trainline PLC (LSE:TRN) meanwhile is climbing ever higher, up almost 12% this morning and 45% over the past 12 months to reach its highest in over a year.
The online ticket seller provided a year-end update on its performance for the financial year to 29 February, which analysts at Stifel said was "closing out better than expected", with EBITDA set to be up around 40% on last year, roughly 8% ahead of consensus expectations.
"At this early stage we expect consensus FY25 EBITDA expectations to move up 4-5%," says the Stifel team.
In the retail sector, John Lewis Partnership, which is not listed but is a bit of a bellwether for the High Street, reported a return to profit for the year to January, thanks to sales growth and stronger margins.
But the bigger news is that staff will not be paid bonuses once again.
The FTSE 100 has also moved into positive territory, up 4 points at 7776. Burberry and Diageo are topping the leaderboard, up 2.1% and 1.6% respectively.
Housebuilders Barratt and Taylor Wimpey are higher after the RICS residential report earlier.
8.43am: OSB margin guidance leads to "sizeable downgrades"
More on challenger bank OSB, which is now down just over 20%, easing a bit after plunging around 30% in early trading.
Results for last year beat expectations but guidance for net interest margin (NIM) in 2024 is weaker than expected.
For the past calendar year underlying profit before tax fell 28% to £426 million but this was 4% ahead of consensus forecasts, primarily due to lower-than-expected impairments.
For 2024, underlying NIM is expected to be "broadly flat", reflecting the impact of a higher cost of funds and the impact of lower margin lending, due primarily to delays in mortgage pricing reflecting the rate rises and higher swap costs.
Analyst Gary Greenwood at Shore Capital said: "NIM guidance is lower than we and consensus had expected, which is likely to drive sizeable forecast downgrades."
8.30am: Bitcoin holding firm
Bitcoin notched another all-time high this morning after adding 0.8% against the US dollar, according to our daily crypto report.
Adding to its exceptional performance in 2024, where the king cryptocurrency is up more than 74%, the latest Bloomberg data shows a new record for ETF cash inflows on Wednesday.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) added $848 million alone on Wednesday, bringing its assets under management above $15 billion to crack the top-100 ETF list.
8.23am: FTSE 100 starts lower
The FTSE 100 stumbled almost a dozen points lower at the open but after a few minutes regained some balance but was still down a point at 7771.
A raft of companies going ex-dividend weighed on the index, meaning NatWest is leading the fallers, followed by Anglo American, Haleon and Entain marked down similarly.
AstraZeneca is up very slightly after an early fall as investors mull its latest mid-sized acquisition, a $1 billion purchase of Amolyt Pharma to add to its rare disease drug pipeline.
Among the mid-caps, Trainline PLC (LSE:TRN) has surged up 9% as the online ticketing platform announced sales at the top end of expectations.
Challenger bank OSB Group PLC (LSE:OSB) however has cratered 26% after reporting a 28% fall in underlying profit before tax and that CFO April Talintyre is stepping down.
This has dragged the FTSE 250 into the red, down 10 points at 19,554.04.
Its blue-chip sibling is the only European market in the red, with the DAX, CAC and IBEX all higher, with the wider Stoxx 600 index up 0.2%, while Asia is mixed, with Tokyo's Nikkei up but the Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite lower.
Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, called it another "relatively tepid day of trading".
"Given the mixed global lead, UK markets opened in unspectacular fashion, with investors searching for catalysts."
The more domestically focused FTSE 250 continued to edge higher although unable to reverse the weakness from earlier in the year, with Hunter noting that it is still down on balance by 0.6% in the year to date, while the FTSE 100 is "clinging on" to gains achieved over recent days, with the index now ahead by just 0.5% so far this year.
7.58am: Halma maintains guidance
Elsewhere in the FTSE 100, safety products group Halma PLC (LSE:HLMA) says it has made progress in the second half of its financial year to 31 March but kept financial guidance unchanged.
It said growth had been "strong" in the face of "varied market conditions", though it has continued to invest in future growth opportunities, with £299 million spent on eight acquisitions, three of which in the second half.
Adjusted profit is expected to be in line with the current City analyst consensus of around £388.5 million, with forecasts in a range from £376 million to £393.5 million, while cash conversion has been ahead of expectations. The strengthening of the pound against the dollar and euro has hit results, it added.
"We have delivered strong constant currency revenue growth in the year to date, comprising good momentum on an organic constant currency basis and a continued healthy contribution from recent acquisitions (net of disposals)," Halma said.
7.35am: AstraZeneca buys French drug company
More on that AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN) deal to buy France's Amolyt Pharma for $1.05 billion (£780 million).
The acquisition will bolster the late-stage pipeline of AZ's Alexion rare disease arm, with the addition of a Phase III drug called eneboparatide (AZP-3601) to treat hypoparathyroidism.
Alongside that lead drug, Alexion boss Marc Dunoyer also highlighted that the acquisition added a "talented team" from Amolyt, which is based in Lyon.
Dunoyer also said that Alexion is "uniquely positioned" to drive complete the development and global commercialisation of eneboparatide.
"We believe this programme, together with Amolyt's talented team, expertise and earlier pipeline, will enable our expansion into rare endocrinology," he added.
The deal adds to a pair of $1 billion-plus deals AZ completed in the final quarter of last year as boss Pascal Soriot looks to wrestle back the FTSE top spot lost last year to Shell.
7.16am: FTSE 100 heading for fourth up-day
The FTSE 100 could string a fourth day of gains together on Thursday, traders predict, session helped by news of another $1 billion-plus deal for AstraZeneca.
London’s share benchmark has been tipped to put on another 9 points, according to spread betting platforms, having added 24.36 yesterday to finish at another nine-month closing high of 7,772.17.
Overnight, US markets has another disappointing finish, with the Nasdaq closing down 0.5% and the S&P 500 losing 0.2%, although the Dow Jones inched up 0.1%.
This morning we’ve had the RICS residential housing market survey, which revealed a jump in the supply of homes for sale and a rise in the number of buyers for the second consecutive month, after an extended decline.
The number of sales agreed has fallen very slightly and selling prices are slightly down over the past year.
But estate agents expect the momentum in sellers and buyers to continue over the next few months.
Paired with a slight rise in mortgage rates, this means “house price gains are likely to stall in the near term,” said Andrew Wishart at Capital Economics.
AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN) meanwhile has announced the acquisition of Amolyt Pharma, a biotech focused on rare endocrine diseases, for up to $1.05 billion (£780 million), on a cash- and debt-free basis.
This includes $800 million upfront at deal closing, plus the right for Amolyt Pharma's shareholders to receive an additional contingent payment of $250 million based on a specified regulatory milestone.