Shares drop after hawkish comments from Fed chair Powell
London’s top index closed down 1.3%.
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Your support makes all the difference.London’s top index ended what had been a fairly quiet week with a major slump on Friday.
In a European downturn the FTSE 100 fell 95.12 points, or 1.28% to end the day at 7360.55.
It came after Jereme Powell, the head of the US Federal Reserve, said interest rates could still keep going up.95.12 points
“European stocks are taking a hit on profit taking ahead of the weekend,” said Axel Rudolph, senior market analyst at online trading platform IG.
“Following hawkish comments by Fed chair Jerome Powell in which he stated that the central bank remains focused on combating inflation and that he could not guarantee a halt to rate hikes, several Asian and European stock indices slid substantially ahead of the weekend.
“Despite Thursday’s disappointing US 30-year treasury bond auction driving bond yields higher and US consumer sentiment falling for a fourth straight month, US indices remained in the green.”
In New York a little while after markets had closed in Europe, the S&P 500 had gained 0.81%, while the Dow Jones was 0.51% higher
In the UK it was the mining sector that weighed on the FTSE 100, as well as drugmaker AstraZeneca. Drinks company Diageo was unrivalled for the bottom place on the FTSE after it unveiled a profit warning.
At the end of the day in Europe Frankfurt’s Dax index fell 0.77%, while the Cac 40 in Paris had closed down 0.96%.
On currency markets the pound had gained 0.09% against the dollar at 1.2208 and had risen 0.08% against the euro at 1.1439.
In company news, Diageo’s shares plummeted 12.2% after the business said its Latin America and Caribbean business has struggled.
The “materially weaker” outlook in the region caused the Guinness and Baileys maker to downgrade its growth forecast for the year.
Elsewhere, NatWest said that its former chief executive Dame Alison Rose would not be getting up to £7.6 million after leaving the bank under a cloud.
She will get £2.4 million for her notice period and an old bonus. Shares in the bank dropped 1.1%.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were BAE Systems, up 13.5p to 1,103.5p, SSE, up 18.5p to 1,680p, Marks & Spencer, up 2.3p to 246.4p, Shell, up 14.5p to 2,629.5p, and BP, up 2.5p to 477.85p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Diageo, down 395p to 2,850p, Ocado, down 30.4p to 514.6p, Fresnillo, down 26.8p to 516.6p, WPP, down 25.4p to 701.2p, and AstraZeneca, down 346p to 10,090p.