London’s FTSE 100 surged on Wednesday, helped by oil majors and mining stocks, as data showed UK house prices fell for the first time since January.
The blue chip index closed up 50 points or 0.7%, boosted by Royal Dutch Shell which rose more than 2% after announcing plans to increase shareholder payouts later this month . Meanwhile, the domestically-focused FTSE 250 rose 0.3%.
The FTSE 100 rally was also led by base metals stocks with miners such as Rio Tinto, Glencore, Anglo American and BHP rising 2-3.1%.
UK house prices in June fell in monthly terms for the first time since January as the government prepared to cut tax relief for homebuyers, the Halifax mortgage lender said. However, they grew 8.8 percent in annual terms.
In the rest of Europe, the French CAC rose by 0.2% and the German DAX by 1.1%.
Meanwhile, across the pond, the S&P 500 hit another record high on Wednesday as mega-cap tech stocks rose despite concerns from China. The index jumped 0.3% to an all-time high of 4,358. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 104 points to 34,682, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite closed at 14,665 despite a intraday record in the early hours.
Chinese firm Didi, which recently joined the New York Stock Exchange, lost 5% more after a 20% crash in its debut on Tuesday, following a data probe by Chinese regulators.
Meanwhile, Asian stocks fell on Thursday as pressure on tech stocks continued amid virus concerns. Japan’s Nikkei lost 200 points in the first half, Hang Seng by 2% and Shanghai Composite lost half a percent by noon.
Indian indices also opened deep in the red, following Asian peers as Sensex held the level above 53,000 while the 50-stock NSE was below 15,900.
Additional reports by agencies
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Source: www.independent.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-07-08 05:41:18
