A very warm welcome to the weekly Market Wrap, you’re with me Katie Pilbeam.
Well this Friday has been hit with some rather dim figures, with UK consumer confidence plummeting for a fourth month in a row as the surging cost of living, the war in Ukraine and the ongoing pandemic is leaving people feeling generally anxious.
And added to this, British retail sales unexpectedly fell in February, with real concern the cost of living crisis is draining any sense of momentum from the UK’s economic recovery.
But despite all of that, the FTSE is looking set to finish up the week in positive territory and we head towards the close here in the British capital.
Elsewhere, The US and the EU have announced a major gas deal to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian energy.
The US will provide the EU with extra gas, equivalent to around 10% of the gas it currently gets from Russia, by the end of the year.
Russia currently supplies about 40% of the EU's gas.
Electric vehicle charging points will rise 10-fold by the end of the decade, the Department for Transport said. The government’s new Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy will increase the UK’s chargepoints from 30,000 to 300,000 by 2030.
Several bidders to buy Chelsea FC have been eliminated from the £3bn auction by American bank the Raine Group. A string of bidders including the former US ambassador to the UK are out as well as the owner of the New York Jets American football team. So the search continues!
Among the small caps, Open Orphan has been awarded a £5mln human challenge study contract and Empyrean Energy expects that the Jade exploration well, offshore China, will spud on or around April 2.