FTSE treads water as it looks past Russian turbulence
Shares in Sainsbury’s, M&S and Tesco were fairly unchanged on Tuesday.
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Your support makes all the difference.Shares in London’s top index treaded water on Tuesday as the capital’s financial companies managed to only just keep the FTSE 100 above water.
By the end of the day, the FTSE had gained 0.1%, closing up just 7.88 points at 7,461.46.
“Overall, London markets have set aside yesterday’s unease over the situation in Russia and focused on economic data closer to home,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.
“In the UK there are further signs that we are past the peak for food price inflation, which will be welcome news for households up and down the country.
“Supermarket bosses have come under fire from politicians today as they refuted claims that their stores had made too much money from rising prices.
The brief bounce in the price of crude oil seen on Monday morning due to Russia’s failed military coup is fizzling out as concerns about further interest rate hikes by major central banks weigh on demand
“The price of some goods has been coming down, thanks in the main to price wars as supermarkets battle to demonstrate they are delivering best value for their customers.”
During the day, online supermarket Ocado saw its shares soar to the top of the FTSE. Ocado’s shares have been highly volatile in recent months.
Last week it benefited from speculation that Amazon might be eyeing a takeover offer.
Shares in Sainsbury’s, M&S and Tesco were fairly unchanged on Tuesday.
It came as there was little economic news out of the UK, but in Europe stocks were put under some pressure after Christine Lagarde, the boss of the European Central Bank (ECB), said the ECB must continue with high interest rates to control inflation.
The French Cac 40 index rose 0.4% while Frankfurt’s Dax closed up 0.2%.
Meanwhile, in North America data out of Canada and the US helped shares there, according to Axel Rudolph, senior market analyst at online trading platform IG.
The S&P 500 was up 0.7% and the Dow Jones had gained 0.4% shortly after markets closed in Europe.
He added that although energy prices increased following the Wagner Group’s brief drive towards Moscow on Saturday, they had come back under control.
By the end of Tuesday, the price of Brent crude oil had fallen 1.1% to 73.36 US dollars (£57.51) per barrel.
“The brief bounce in the price of crude oil seen on Monday morning due to Russia’s failed military coup is fizzling out as concerns about further interest rate hikes by major central banks weigh on demand,” Mr Rudolph said.
“The slip in the oil price occurred despite Chinese premier Li Qiang’s commitment to implementing measures aimed at stimulating demand and helping the economy.”
On currency markets the pound gained 0.3% to 1.275 dollars and fell by 0.2% to 1.163 euros.
In company news, shares in payments company Wise jumped 15.5% after the business reported it had more than tripled pre-tax profit in the most recent financial year.
The business said it had benefited from higher interest rates as central banks try to get inflation under control.
Elsewhere, JD Sports saw its shares fall 2.8% after revealing its sales were 8% higher in May, a reduction from the 15% growth it had seen in the first three months of the financial year.
The sportswear seller said it still expects to make a profit of £1 billion this year.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Ocado, up 27.2p to 557.8p, Vodafone, up 2.59p to 72.65p, IAG, up 4.1p to 161.15p, Standard Chartered, up 13p to 671p, and Kingfisher, up 4.4p to 230p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were BT, down 4.65p to 123p, JD Sports, down 4p to 142.6p, Croda International, down 124p to 5,456p, Persimmon, down 17p to 1,045p, and BP, down 6.3p to 452.7p.