London’s blue-chip and mid-cap indices marked a fresh 14-month high on Friday, fuelled by historic gains overnight by Wall Street.
With the trio of top US tickers, the Nasdaq, Dow Jones and S&P 500 all posting record highs on Thursday, the heady UK FTSE 100 took the opportunity to get ahead too.
Stocks also gained from higher oil prices. Brent crude was up 4.2% to $45.89.
The FTSE 100 closed firmer at 6,916, up 0.02% - its highest since late May 2015 - having earlier scaled an intraday high of 6,931. That was just 150 points off the all-time high of 7,089 reached in early 2014 by Britain’s blue-chip ticker.
The FTSE 250 index of mid-caps gained 0.6% to 17,921 – again its highest since May 2015. Top gainer was Restaurant Group (LON:RTN), owners of Frankie & Benny’s, up 10/9% to 417.70p after the pub and restaurant chain announced the departure of its chief executive Danny Breithaupt, who has been with the company for 15 years, replaced by Andy McCue from next month.
Among the blue-chips, while mining stocks like Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) led the losers, the FTSE 100 was able to stay above the day’s waterline thanks to gains by stocks such as budget airline easyJet (LON:EZJ) and retailer Marks and Spencer (LON:MKS).
EasyJet gained 4% to 1,101p after the company announced that it purchased on 10 August, ordinary shares of 27 2/7 pence each in the capital of the Company for the benefit of several key directors of the company.
Marks & Spencer closed up 3.1% to 352p.
Copper miner Antofagasta lost 3.3% to 514.52p, but on no fresh news. Rio Tinto shed 0.3% to 2,497p.
The FTSE AIM 100 Index closed up 19.8% at 3,759 while the FTSE AIM All-Share Index gained 0.4% to 783.
On the London market on Friday 39% of stocks gained, 22% fell and 39% were unchanged.
Midsession
As track and field action gets underway in Rio today, hopefully for Jessica Ennis Hill and Mo Farrah there are no omens in Friday’s stock market trends.
Whilst London’s FTSE 100 has today set a new high for the year, the blue chip index seemingly can’t keep pace with Wall Street’s record breaking rally.
All three major US stock benchmarks ended Thursday’s session at record highs – which in itself a first.
The Dow Jones closed 117 points, 0.64%, higher at 18,613 while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq added just over 0.45% to end the day at 2,185 and 5,228 respectively.
Here in London, the footsie followed up with a 16 point, just over 0.2%, gain to register an intraday high of 6,931. So, there’s still some way to go until for the FTSE 100 to reach its all-time high (the best close was 7,089, set in spring 2014).
MARKET MOVERS: Genus sexed semen case rumbles on
Softer economic stats out of China have somewhat stymied the rally, with miners Rio Tinto Plc (LON:RIO), Antofagasta Plc (LON:ANTO) and BHP Billiton Plc (LON:BLT) all dropping more than 2% in morning trading.
European pop bottler Coca-Cola HBC was a top performer among the FTSE 100 constituents, rising 2.9% to 1,730p – gaining more ground after Thursday’s better than expected financial results.
Retailers Marks & Spencer Group Plc (LON:MKS), Next Plc (LON:NXT), and Dixons Carphone Plc (LON:DC.) all also featured in the index’s top five risers.
The promise of a new leader boosted Restaurant Group Plc (LON:RTN) as shares in the Frankie & Benny’s owner rallied 10% after announcing former Paddy Power boss Andy McCue would be taking over as chief executive.
Snapshot at 8.15am
The FTSE 100 was down almost 8 points this morning to 6,907.
The top winner was Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (LON:RDSB), up 1% to 1,945p.
The biggest loser was Fresnillo (LON:FRES), down just over 1% to 1,946p.
Preview at 6.57am
FTSE 100 is tipped to open higher at the end of the week after US shares reached record highs overnight, bolstered by a surge in the oil price.
Spreadbetter IG Index is calling the blue chip benchmark to open almost nine higher after the Footsie closed on Thursday at 6,914, up over 48 points - the highest level since May last year.
The rise is prompted also by the weakness of the pound - now at five year lows.
The S&P 500, Dow and tech heavy Nasdaq all reached fresh highs yesterday, the Dow up 117 points at 18,613, the S&P500 closing 0.47% higher at 2,185 and the Nasdaq adding 0.,46% to 5,228.
Oil made good gains, and US crude is currently up 1.10% to stand at US$43.97.
In Asia this helped stocks higher and the Shanghai index is up 0.27% at the time of writing to 3,010 while Japan's Nikkei is up over 1% to 16,907.
There isn't much company news about today, although, on the macro front, we are expecting UK construction data later.
Michael Hewson, at CMC Markets, said: "With the pound continuing to come under pressure today’s construction output numbers for June aren’t likely to rip up any trees or assuage concerns about a slowdown in the construction sector at the end of Q2."
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