FTSE falls just short of hitting 8,000 mark
Helped by telecoms companies, London’s top index pushed to as high as 7,996.35, sparking hopes that it might hit the big round number.
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
The FTSE 100 got within spitting distance of its next big milestone on Tuesday, but failed to push above the meaningless but pleasing 8,000-point mark.
Helped by telecoms companies, London’s top index pushed to as high as 7,996.35, sparking hopes that it might hit the big round number.
But despite missing out on the big prize, the score was still an all-time record as the FTSE has soared since the start of this year.
BT, Airtel Africa and Vodafone were all clearly in the green, helping to pull the index up. It came after Liberty Global – a US giant – took a nearly 5% stake in Vodafone.
The investment was revealed late on Monday, but Liberty said it does not plan to make a bid for the whole of Vodafone.
“The telecoms sector helped to drive today’s move to new highs at 7,996 after Liberty Global announced it had taken a 4.9% stake in Vodafone, saying that the recent share price declines meant that the business was undervalued,” said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson
“This has also translated into gains for the wider sector with BT Group also higher, given that it has been subject to stake building from outside investors, with Altice being one of the biggest.”
But despite its good performance earlier in the day, the FTSE faltered towards the close. By the end of the day it had pared back its gains to just 7,953.85, a rise of 6.25 points of 0.1%.
In Europe, the Dax closed up 0.1% while the Cac 40 gained 0.3%. Stateside the S&P 500 was trading down 0.9% shortly after UK markets shut, the Dow Jones was down 1.1% around the same time.
On currency markets, the pound gained 0.2% and could buy 1.215 dollars or 1.134 euros.
In company news, Tui said that its losses had halved in the three months to the end of December as the travel sector continues to recover from the pandemic.
The company said that it had carried 3.3 million customers, a million more than the same quarter a year ago.
Shares rose by 0.7%.
Amigo Loans was told on Tuesday that it has been let off a £73 million fine because of the terrible state of its finances.
Unsurprisingly shares soared on the news, closing up nearly 20% after the City watchdog made the announcement.
The Financial Conduct Authority rebuked the lender, saying that its failure to carry out proper affordability checks had led to a “high risk” of harming customers.
The fine would have meant that the company would struggle to pay compensation to its customers, the FCA said.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Coca-Cola HBC, up 104.5p at 2,046p, BT group, up 5.2p at 139.3p, Vodafone, up 3.43p at 97.43p, Airtel Africa, up 3.3p at 127.1p, and Flutter, up 230p at 12,775p.
The biggest fallers of the day were Severn Trent, down 54p at 2,794p, United Utilities, down 19.5p at 1,056p, Entain, down 18.5p at 1,310.5p, Land Securities, down 9p at 702.4p, and British Land, down 5.4p at 447p.