Good morning, the UK markets are on the rise this Tuesday with London’s blue-chip index regaining almost all Monday's losses in early trading. All eyes will be on the house builders today after the sector lost £1 billion in value on Monday after the UK Government gave the industry weeks to come up with a plan to £4 billion cladding scandal.
UK retail sales held up in December despite fears over the Omicron variant of coronavirus, but rising living costs pose significant challenges ahead for retailers. Total sales rose by 2.1% in December compared with the same month a year earlier.
Heathrow has asked for coronavirus testing for fully vaccinated passengers to be dropped after over 600,000 people cancelled flights in December. The UK’s largest airport carried 12% less passengers last year compared with 2020.
Bitcoin briefly dropped below US$40,000 for the first time in five months. This reinforces cryptocurrency’s torrid start to the year following tighter global restrictions and US interest rate hike speculation.
Lidl has stimulated a grocery price war as it vows to keep prices down as rising inflation squeezes household budgets. Its low-priced competitor Aldi made a similar pledge yesterday amid 3.5% supermarket inflation.
Small cap news today coming from Technology Minerals PLC (LSE:TM1) (Technology Minerals PLC (LSE:TM1)) which has opened its first laboratory suite at its new battery processing facility in Wolverhampton, UK.
London-based oil and gas exploration and production company Genel Energy PLC (LSE:GENL, OTC:GEGYY) (Genel Energy PLC (LSE:GENL, OTC:GEGYY), Genel Energy PLC (LSE:GENL, OTC:GEGYY)) has announced their chief financial officer will step down.