Quiet day leads to small drop on FTSE 100
By the end of the day the FTSE 100 had fallen by less than 0.1%, a 3.76-point reverse, ending at 7,624.34.
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Your support makes all the difference.After an uneventful day which saw the FTSE 100 stray no further than 25 points from where it started, the index closed down on Wednesday.
Faced on the one hand with rises from its telecoms and oil sector companies, the index was fairly well balanced throughout the day as some financials and energy companies fell.
By the end of the day the FTSE 100 had fallen by less than 0.1%, a 3.76-point reverse, ending at 7,624.34.
There was also fairly little change on international markets.
As traders were preparing to shut up for the day in London the S&P 500 in New York was down just 0.1%, while the Dow Jones was trading flat.
In Germany the Dax index was down 0.2% while France’s Cac 40 dropped 0.1%
“It’s been another cautious day for European markets with little in the way of overall direction, opening lower after exports in China plunged by 7.5% in May, a sharp fall from the 8.5% gains seen in April and raising concerns about the outlook for global demand,” said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
“The investor caution is understandable given that today’s numbers out of China are the latest example of global economic data that has pointed to a weak demand outlook, at a time when interest rates appear to have further to rise.”
He said that in London housebuilders such as Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey had been hit by a rise in short-term yields – a sign that interest rates are expected to remain higher for longer – and evidence that house prices were continuing to drop.
“Despite this drag the FTSE 100 is being helped by gains from Vodafone on reports that the telecoms giant is working through the final details of the merger of its British operations with Hong Kong’s Hutchison Holdings, which runs the Three network,” Mr Hewson said.
The price of Brent crude oil rose 1.4% to 77.37 dollars per barrel, helping to increase the value of Shell and BP shares.
The pound rose by around a third of one per cent to 1.236 dollars, and around 0.2% against the euro to 1.164.
In company news, Diageo announced its boss died this week after undergoing emergency surgery.
Sir Ivan Menezes was 63 and was already set to retire on July 1 after 10 years at the top of the Guinness and Johnnie Walker maker. Shares in the business dropped 0.4% on Wednesday.
Elsewhere Hostmore, which owns the Fridays restaurant chain, said it had seen a 1% drop in revenue in the 22 weeks to early June.
Shares in the business dipped 0.9%.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were BT, up 5.4p to 149.45p, Ocado, up 12.9p to 371.3p, Melrose Industries, up 16.6p to 519.8p, AB Foods, up 56.5p to 1,896.5p, and Ashtead, up 130p to 5,286p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Admiral Group, down 57p to 2,335p, Segro, down 19p to 810.8p, ConvaTec, down 4.6p to 201.9p, Entain, down 27.5p to 1,277.25p, and Croda International, down 128p to 6,112p.