London’s FTSE 100 ended a three-day winning streak dragged down by mining stocks as positive trade data helped maintain sentiment.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed 44 points or 0.6% lower, while the domestically-focused FTSE 250 closed half a percent lower.
Retailer B&M Europe was down 3.9% while International Consolidated Airlines group was down 5%.
UK Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data released on Thursday showed the biggest jump in service sector activity in 24 years last month. The PMI rose from 61.0 in April to 62.9 in May, taking it to its highest level since May 1997 and above an initial estimate of 61.8.
Matthew Ryan, CFA, senior market analyst at Ebury, said PMI figures show a “pretty large upward revision” and provide “yet another indication that activity is rebounding strongly as foreclosure measures in Grande -Brittany are gradually lifted “.
“UK macroeconomic data has been overwhelmingly positive lately, and today’s data only provides further evidence,” he said.
“Given the strength of the latest data, we are increasingly confident that we will see a strong rebound in UK activity in the second and third quarters of the year at a faster pace than the rest of Europe, which has lagged a little behind in removing the lockdown measures. “
Across the ocean, stocks closed lower on Wall Street, led by further declines at large tech companies, while positive economic data helped limit losses.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed its low on Thursday to end the session near the flat line, down just 23 points, or less than 0.1% to 34,577. The S&P 500 lost 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite suffered a decline of 1%.
Data from the United States showed private employment growth for May accelerated to its fastest pace in nearly a year, as payroll firm ADP’s report showed that companies were hiring nearly a million workers.
Meanwhile, the latest jobless claims data is slightly above estimates at 385,000, the first time jobless claims have fallen below 400,000 since the early days of the pandemic.
Positive data from the United States helped Asia-Pacific stocks to open higher on Friday. The Japanese Nikkei, however, lost 0.8% at the start of the session, recovering a little from its losses around midday. The MSCI’s largest Asia-Pacific stock index outside of Japan was down 1.4 percent. Chinese blue chips edged up 0.3 percent.
Hang Seng shares in Hong Kong fell on fears of escalating tensions between the United States and China, with the leading index trading down 0.4%.
President Joe Biden on Thursday signed an executive order banning U.S. entities from investing in an expanded list of 59 Chinese companies with suspected ties to the defense technology or surveillance industries.
Indian indices opened flat earlier and slumped after the country’s Reserve Bank announced monetary policy on Friday morning. Sensex traded down 0.3%, while Nifty was down 0.2% in the early hours of the trade.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept the repo rate at 4 percent and the repo rate at 3.35 percent with an accommodative monetary policy. He revised downward the GDP forecast, forecasting that India’s real GDP will grow by 9.5% in fiscal year 2021-2022.
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Source: www.independent.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-06-04 06:09:29
