Market overview: FTSE closes higher for positive week
1650: The FTSE 100 and 250 indices are ending the week in positive territory, meaning all the drama inspired by China's 'Black Monday' has in some ways been erased, with London's larger cap stocks ending the week higher than they finished the Friday before.
888 Holdings (DI)
82.20p
11:15 23/04/24
Banks
4,010.66
11:20 23/04/24
CAC 40
8,081.92
11:19 23/04/24
Entain
854.00p
11:19 23/04/24
Food & Drug Retailers
3,800.34
11:19 23/04/24
FTSE 100
8,063.27
11:20 23/04/24
FTSE 250
19,722.29
11:20 23/04/24
FTSE 350
4,430.66
11:20 23/04/24
FTSE AIM 100
3,638.22
11:20 23/04/24
FTSE AIM All-Share
753.27
11:20 23/04/24
FTSE All-Share
4,384.71
11:20 23/04/24
FTSE Small Cap
6,437.19
11:20 23/04/24
HSBC Holdings
667.80p
11:20 23/04/24
Tesco
294.70p
11:20 23/04/24
Travel & Leisure
7,705.61
11:19 23/04/24
Xetra DAX
18,027.48
11:20 23/04/24
1506: The University of Michigan confidence indicator declined unexpectedly in August. The index dropped from 92.9 to 91.9, against expectations for a 93.1 reading.
1334: On 20 September Greece will hold its second general election this year. A decree from President Prokopis Pavlopoulos rubber stamped the date. Greek parliament is temporarily being led by Supreme Court judge, Vassiliki Thanou, after she was appointed caretaker prime minister earlier.
1220: The FTSE remains lower just after midday on Friday. Investors are staying on the sidelines ahead of the release of a fresh batch of economic data Stateside in the afternoon, despite optimistic calls from many strategists. Germany's Dax is off by 0.65%. On Friday morning, strategists at Credit Suisse reiterated their “constructive” view on US and European equities as “too much of a slowdown in growth is being priced in” and “the normal pre-conditions for an equity bear market are not in place.
1150: Next and Debenhams are two shares that have been hit by negative broker sentiment today. On the other side of the coin, Daily Mail & General Trust got a boost from Citigroup, as the US group's analysts upgraded the stock to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ and raised the price target to 980p from 900p, saying the risk/reward balance looks more attractive following a sharp drop in the share price.
1127: Banking giant HSBC said it will investigate the issues that led to a number of payments being held up on Friday. The FTSE 100 group said the problems were thought to be linked with the national Bacs system, which processes up to £50bn every day and plays a crucial part in Britain's financial system.
1118: Shares in Innovation Group surged after the software provider confirmed advanced talks about a 40p-a-share takeover by US buyout firm Carlyle. Innovation said: “A further announcement may be made shortly and will be made as appropriate. However, there can be no certainty that an offer will be made, nor as to the terms on which any offer will be made.”
1111: The volumes of UK supermarket sales in recent weeks fell for the first time since December, with Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrison all losing market share to discount stores. According to data gathered by Nielsen, grocery sales volumes shrank 0.3% during the four weeks ending 15 August compared to the same period a year ago, driven by declines in soft drinks, frozen foods and general merchandise.
1043: Private equity firm Carlyle Group has reportedly dropped its bid for Tesco’s South Korean arm, Homeplus. According to MoneyToday, which cited unnamed sources, the firm was deterred by the high acquisition price for Homeplus. That leaves consortiums led by MBK partners and KKR in the running.
1026: Based on the regional consumer price data out of Germany thus far today, Capital Economics estimates that Germany´s harmonised CPI held at 0.1% year-on-year in August. The strengthening euro may not prompt action from the ECB as soon as its meeting next week but the lack of inflation will lead it to extend and perhaps increase the pace of its Asset Purchase Programme.
0945: The UK economy grew in line with expectations in the second quarter, figures released on Friday showed. Britain's GDP grew 0.7% quarter-on-quarter in the three months to the end of June, in line with estimates, while year-on-year growth was 2.6%, unchanged from previous estimates and in line with expectations.
0930: Currently Marshalls is top of the FTSE 350 leader board after the paving slabs group impressed with interim sales well ahead of its market. Jimmy Choo is a faller despite most of its headline numbers strutting higher, though EBITDA was flat. The online gambling companies involved in a three-way bidding tug-of-love all put their results out this morning. 888 Holdings, which is competing with rival GVC to buy Bwin.Party, reported a 41% drop in first-half pre-tax profit, said it was on track for the full year and kept its fingers crossed that its bid will be the winning one. For its part, Bwin's profits were higher after cost-cutting and said that no change to its recommendation for 888’s offer but that discussions with GVC were ongoing. GVC's results were good and it said it expected to update the market "soon" about the bid.
0915: After an initial move higher, as it looked on track to finish a dramatic week roughly flat or even slightly higher, the FTSE 100 is now slightly in the red, with Germany's Dax a full 1% lower. Investors may be erring on the side of caution following a turbulent week and ahead of some key US data releases. In the US, S&P futures are also down. Overnight, US stocks completed strong session on the back of oil's strongest day in six years, while earlier on Friday Asia-Pacific markets all closed in positive territory. The Shanghai composite index climbed 1.66%, the S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.53%, the Hang Seng index gained 0.75% and the Nikkei 225 jumped 2.46%.