FTSE treads water but outperforms European rivals
The index never moved far from its starting point during the day.
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Your support makes all the difference.The FTSE 100 had an anaemic performance on Monday after strong gains last week.
Throughout the day, London’s largest index never strayed more than around 41 points from its start. When it closed it had gained 0.03 points, a rise of 0% that left it at 7,417.76.
It came amid problems for some of the FTSE’s property groups, including student landlord Unite, commercial landlord Landsec, and online property finder Rightmove.
All three crowded towards the bottom of the FTSE.
Earlier on Monday, a poor showing from the UK’s construction PMIs showed more evidence that the building sector has faced a tough time in recent months.
After the big gains of last week, European markets have spent the day taking a bit of a pause for reflection, with the FTSE 100 edging higher, while the FTSE 250, Dax and Cac 40 have all struggled
October’s PMI score was the second worst the sector has seen since the extreme plunges during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“After the big gains of last week, European markets have spent the day taking a bit of a pause for reflection, with the FTSE 100 edging higher, while the FTSE 250, Dax and Cac 40 have all struggled,” Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said.
By the end of the day, the Cac 40, which is in Paris, had dropped 0.5%, while Germany’s Dax was down 0.4%.
Shortly before European markets closed, both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones were trading around 0.2% higher.
The pound gained around 0.1% to 1.239 US dollars and traded up slightly to 1.153 euros.
In company news, shares in Boohoo seemed unimpacted – up 0.8% – by a BBC report which claimed that the fashion company broke its promises to make its clothes in a fair way.
BBC’s Panorama programme sent an undercover reporter into the firm who documented cases where staff would pressure suppliers to reduce prices lower than already agreed prices.
A supply chain scandal at Boohoo three years ago caused the company to overhaul its ethical practices.
In other news, Prudential’s shares also barely registered its rise in sales during the third quarter.
The company said that business profit was up 35% to 2.1 billion US dollars (£1.7 billion) in the nine months to the end of September. But growth slowed in the third quarter.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Melrose Industries, up 17.2p to 507p, Standard Chartered, up 12.8p to 632p, Entain, up 14.8p to 934.4p, Natwest Group, up 2.85p to 189.8p, and Rolls-Royce, up 3.2p to 224.1p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Unite Group, down 40.5p to 911.5p, Segro, down 25.6p to 758p, Land Securities, down 19.6p to 596.8p, WPP, down 20.2p to 723.8p, and Hargreaves Lansdown, down 19.8p to 730.8p.