Skip to main content

London drives stock market rally.

 The stock market rally has further to run this year; analysts have forecast signs that inflation has

Index

peaked, and a more resilient economy promises to support sentiment. Shares in London have outperformed City expectations since the start of this year, with the FTSE 100 breaching the 8,000 mark for the first time this week. Analysts at Barclays and Goldman Sachs believe the FTSE 100 index will end the year above its present level, at 8,200, compared with the record 8,012.53 hit on Thursday. However, Barclays said that fear of missing out among institutional investors was likely to return, particularly among asset managers that had «stayed on the sidelines, sticking to the stagflation playbook of 2022», Barclays said.

However,persistent inflation means there is no free lunch and higher-for-longer rates are the cost for resilient growth». The top three biggest risers on the FTSE 100 since January are JD Sports, the athleisure retailer, International Consolidated Airlines, owner of British Airways, and BT Group, reversing a bruising sell-off in each of those companies last year. In recent years, the FTSE 100 has had to watch from the sidelines as its overseas peers, notably in the United States, set record after record. The decline in sterling’s value has provided another boon for the heavyweight FTSE 100, whose constituents make three-quarters of their earnings overseas.

Comments

  1. Unfortunately the UK is not in a good place right now and this doesn't look like it will get better any time soon. There is dire need of good leadership at the top and plans in place for the next 5-10 years not just 1-2 years.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Cloud Bookkeeping

US FED rate rise.

  The US Federal Reserve officials have indicated that they plan to resume increasing interest rates to control inflation in the world's biggest economy. During the June meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee reached a consensus to keep interest rates stable for the time being to evaluate whether further tightening of policy would be necessary. However, the majority of the committee anticipates that additional rate increases will be required in the future. The minutes of the meeting have recently been made public. According to the minutes, most participants believed maintaining the federal funds rate at 5 to 5.25 per cent was appropriate or acceptable, despite some individuals wanting to raise the acceleration due to slow progress in cooling inflation. Although Fed forecasts predicted a mild recession starting later in the year, policymakers faced challenges in interpreting data that showed a tight job market and only slight improvements in inflation. Additionally, officials gr...

EU business slide.

  S&P Global’s flash eurozone composite purchasing managers’ index, a key gauge of business conditions for the manufacturing and services sector, fell 1 point to 47.1, figures showed yesterday. That is its lowest level since November 2020 and the fourth consecutive month below the crucial 50 mark separating growth from contraction. One of the few bright spots in the survey was that companies in all sectors reported a slight easing of cost pressures, price growth and supply chain constraints. However, prices charged for goods and services still rose at the sixth fastest rate since such data started in 2002. Jobs growth increased marginally from October but remained low compared with the past 18 months. Following a few months of falling price pressure in manufacturing and services, the October print shows an overall stabilisation said Jens Eisenschmidt, chief European economist at Morgan Stanley. However, German businesses, at the hub of Europe’s energy crisis, reported that manu...

EU debt reduction

  Brussels wants to give EU capitals extra time to curb their debts and create space for public investment as part of an overhaul of the EU’s deficit rules .  The European Commission would table a proposal at the end of the month to reform the Stability and Growth Pact ,  under which it would work out multi-year ,  country-specific plans with capitals for getting their debt burdens under control ,  EU officials said .  The proposals come as member states face mounting fiscal burdens as they spend hundreds of billions of euros sheltering businesses and households from the energy crisis .  Under the new blueprint ,  the commission would propose a four- or five-year plan to an EU member state to get its public debt burden on a credible ,  downward trajectory ,  officials said . The national fiscal plan would need to pass a debt sustainability analysis and be approved by the commission and EU council .  The new regime would ditch an EU ...