By Jack Barnett
The FTSE 100 has extended its strong start to the year by closing at its highest level since the summer of 2019 today, powered by mining giants in London trading.
The capital’s premier index clinched the landmark after a late afternoon surge, finishing up 0.87 per cent at 7,699.49 points.
Miners led the FTSE 100 today, with the likes of Glencore, Anglo American and Antofagasta all hovering near the summit of the biggest risers table.
Hopes of a China economic reopening lifting oil prices sent Shell and BP up more than one per cent heading into the afternoon session, although the pair’s rally lost steam heading into the close.
BP and Shell represent a massive chunk of the FTSE 100, meaning movements in their share prices exert a strong influence over the direction of the flagship index.
FTSE 100 posts another strong day
Middle-class favourite and online supermarket Ocado continued to arrest last year’s slide by jumping 2.69 per cent in the morning, but it eventually closed up a shade lower than half a percentage point.
London’s top index has been on a tear in the first trading week of 2023, lifted yesterday by Asia-focused Standard Chartered climbing nearly seven per cent after it emerged First Abu Dhabi Bank had been mulling buying the bank.
Its shares lost more than two per cent today.
Analysts said a string of strong updates from retailers yesterday indicated the gloomiest predictions about the UK economy may be overblown.
Peel Hunt analyst Ian Williams said it was “an encouraging day for those pushing the…. attractions of the UK market, as the trading update from Next offered some encouragement that the gloom about the consumer out look may have been overdone.”
Next was up a comfortable seven per cent yesterday.
Even the FTSE 250, which is a more domestically focussed market, has done well after it slid last year. It is up 1.94 per cent so far this year, as some negativity lifts.
China’s reopening from the Zero-Covid policy has boosted global sentiment significantly, with the economic growth potentially produced by the Asian giant helping in theory to power the west out of recession with a bit more oomph.
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