FTSE breaks three-day subdued run as housebuilders help lift index
Paddy Power owner Flutter was the biggest loser on Thursday.
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London’s top index broke out of a dull three-day run on Thursday as it added more than 50 points buoyed in part by the housing sector.
The FTSE 100 ended up 0.7%, or 53.95 points, ending the day at 7,455.67.
It was the first time all week that the index moved by more than 10 points in a day as the FTSE ended its subdued streak.
It came as Rightmove, Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments all pushed up by more than 2%, helping to lift the index on Thursday.
On the other side of the coin, there were only a handful of companies whose shares fell. Flutter Entertainment, whose third quarter results were out in the morning, fell to the bottom of the index.
The company reported that gaming revenues had jumped by 26%, but it warned that a drop in racing revenues in Australia meant that it expects adjusted earnings outside the US to be at the very bottom of its £1.44-£1.6 billion guidance.
Shares in the business, which owns Paddy Power and Betfair, closed the day down 10.3%.
By the close of play in Europe, the S&P 500 had risen 0.1% while the Dow Jones was trading flat. The Dax in Germany closed up 0.8% while France’s Cac 40 rose by 1.1%.
The pound fell 0.1% to 1.227 dollars and 1.146 euros. Brent crude oil gained 1.3%, rising to 80.61 dollars per barrel.
In company news, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca hiked its guidance for the year. It had previously expected core earnings to increase around 10%, but said that it could now rise by as much as into the low teens.
The business said that third-quarter sales had risen 12% when cutting out the impact of falling Covid-19 treatment sales.
Shares in the business closed up 2.7%.
Elsewhere, Domino’s Pizza saw its shares sink by 6.7% as it reported a drop in orders due to falling demand for pizza deliveries.
The company said that its 8.4% rise in collection orders was not enough to offset the 6.3% drop in deliveries and total orders fell 1.2% to 16.7 million.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Auto Trader, up 53.8p to 689.2p, Spirax-Sarco, up 336p to 8,760p, Rightmove, up 18.3p to 487.7p, RS Group, up 25.8p to 717.6p, and Kingfisher, up 7.3p to 227.3p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Flutter Entertainment, down 1,400p to 12,300p, B&M European, down 16.6p to 521.2p, Entain, down 13.4p to 944.6p, Anglo American, down 19.5p to 2,076p, and 3i Group, down 19p to 2,022p.