London’s FTSE 100 rises after dodging China economy woes
The FTSE 100 ended the day up 25.52 points, or 0.35%, to 7,628.26, lifted by Shell and Astrazeneca, the two biggest companies on its list.
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Your support makes all the difference.London’s top market managed to avoid the problems hitting its continental rivals as worries over Chinese economic data, and a rates hike from the European Central Bank weighed on European indices.
The FTSE 100 ended the day up 25.52 points, or 0.35%, to 7,628.26, lifted by Shell and Astrazeneca, the two biggest companies on its list.
They both rose slightly, offsetting falls among some of the UK’s biggest financial institutions, including NatWest and Barclays.
Shares across Europe were harder hit, with Frankfurt’s Dax index closing down 0.13% and France’s Cac 40 dropping 0.51%.
“For all the optimism that helped to drive the early week gains for markets in Europe, and the record highs for the Dax, today’s Chinese economic data for May has punctured some of that, prompting a little bit of profit-taking after retail sales and industrial production came in below expectations,” said Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets UK.
“China retail sales showed a gain of 12.7% from a year ago which, when you consider various parts of the economy were under Covid restrictions, was disappointing and was down from 18.4% in April.”
He added: “The FTSE 100 is managing to hold up reasonably well despite weakness in basic resources and financials, with gains in healthcare, energy and consumer staples helping to offset that.”
It came as the European Central Bank declined to follow the lead of its US counterpart, which paused a series of interest rate hikes. European decision makers hiked interest rates from 3.25% to 3.5%, the highest in the Eurozone since 2001.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 was trading up around 0.7% as European markets were closing, while the Dow Jones had gained 1%.
The pound rose 0.8% and could buy 1.276 dollars by the close of play in London, and it fell 0.1% to 1.167 euros.
In company news, shares in online fashion retailer Asos surged on Thursday after the company cheered a return to profitability over the past quarter, having managed to secure £200 million of cost savings and profit efficiencies so far this financial year.
Asos has been in the midst of a recovery plan and wants to make £300 million in total savings this year. Shares in the fashion giant jumped by 14.8%.
Shares in FTSE 100-listed Informa also climbed after the events and business intelligence group said its shareholders were in line for a cash return boost.
The global company said it expects to see its full-year adjusted operating profit jump by a 10th after fully recovering from Covid lockdowns and seeing demand increase in key international markets, including China.
Its shares jumped towards the top of the FTSE 100 and closed 3.4% higher.
Purplebricks is set to drop off the AIM index on Friday after agreeing to a takeover by rival online estate agent Strike. The firm will operate as a private company under the ownership of Strike, backed by Carphone Warehouse founder Sir Charles Dunstone.
Its share price was down 3.1% on its final day of trading.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Ocado, up 20.9p to 430p, Informa, up 24p to 728.4p, Reckitt, up 118p to 6,024p, AstraZeneca, up 176p to 11,686p, and Relx, up 39p to 2,619p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were NatWest Group, down 9.2p to 256.2p, Halma, down 83p to 2,346p, Airtel Africa, down 4.3p to 129.4p, Legal & General, down 6p to 232p, and Barclays, down 3.64p to 153.8p.