FTSE 100 made a good start to Friday with the mood helped by a decent showing by the UK economy as it recovered from omicron. The index was up 52 points at 7,151 in early trades.
Britain’s GDP grew by a better than expected 0.8% in January. It will be a welcome boost to Chancellor Rishi Sunak as he juggles increasing pressure to support businesses and homes, the war in Ukraine and soaring inflation.
The Chancellor admitted the war has caused significant uncertainty for the UK economy but "it is vital that we stand with the people of Ukraine to uphold our shared values of freedom and democracy and ensure Putin fails", he said.
Vladimir Putin meanwhile admitted the sanctions issued have caused “problems and difficulties.” Although the Russian President went on to insist that they would eventually be self-defeating for the West.
Cyber security company Avast meanwhile became the latest UK-listed group to suspend all its operations in Russia and Belarus. Disney too said it is pulling out.
Elsewhere, Endeavour Mining is to sell its 90% stake in the Karma mine in Burkina Faso to Néré Mining for up to US$25mln plus a 2.5% net smelter return royalty. The royalty is payable on all ounces of gold produced in excess of 160,000oz from the start of this year.
Among the small caps, shares in Quantum Blockchain climbed 20% following the filing of a new patent application for a qubit algorithm for Bitcoin mining. The technology is expected to increase the hashing speed compared to other ASIC miners.
DeepVerge said production orders at its environmental division, Modern Water, jumped 39% in the first quarter to £5mln. The orders are the largest in Modern Water’s history and comprised drinking water testing, contamination and COVID detection equipment.