Stock prices in London were in the green on Wednesday morning, despite its peers in Paris and Frankfurt falling, ahead of a slew of data from the eurozone and the US.
The FTSE 100 index opened up 22.67 points, or 0.3%, at 8,254.83. The FTSE 250 was up 48.92 points, or 0.2%, at 20,766.91, and the AIM All-Share was up 2.15 points, or 0.3%, at 800.35.
The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.2% at 822.79, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.1% at 18,215.15, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 16,974.29.
The leaders of Britain’s two main political parties faced off in the first live TV debate of the general election campaign on Tuesday, a month before voters go to the polls, AFP reported.
Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he had ‘a clear plan for a more secure future’ while Labour leader Keir Starmer said he wanted the country’s backing on July 4 to ‘change our country’.
The run-up to the debate was overshadowed by Nigel Farage, whose return to the political frontline could spell even more bad news for the Tories.
Farage, whose once fringe idea of getting Britain out of the EU eventually became mainstream, is standing as a candidate for his anti-immigration Reform UK party.
Away from the debate, there was news that a Labour government would create an offshore skills passport to allow workers to move between fossil fuels and renewables.
Offshore workers may currently need to duplicate training when moving between the two sectors, increasing costs and the length of time it takes to change jobs.
But speaking to workers and businesses in Aberdeen on Wednesday, Shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray has pledged to work with the Scottish Government to introduce the policy, if Labour wins the election on July 4.
In European equities on Wednesday, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.8%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was down 1.1%.
The pound was quoted at $1.2769 early on Wednesday in London, down compared to $1.2786 at the equities close on Tuesday. The euro stood at $1.0873, down against $1.0881. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JP¥155.91, up compared to JP¥154.89.
In the FTSE 100, B&M European Value Retail lost 3.2%.
The Luxembourg-headquartered variety goods retailer posted a statutory pretax profit of £498 million for the year ended March 30, up 14% from £436 million a year prior. Revenue rose to £5.48 billion, up 10% from £4.98 billion.
The firm declared a final dividend of 9.60 pence per share, unchanged from a year prior, making its total dividend 14.70p per share, up 0.7% from 14.60p.
Looking ahead, B&M said it was confident in its outlook for cash generation and profit growth in financial 2025. The group also announced the promotion of Tiffany Hall to chair, succeeding retiring Peter Bamford on July 23.
In the FTSE 250, Workspace gained 0.9% after posting a pretax loss for the year ended March 31 of £192.8 million from £37.5 million the previous year.
Revenue came to £184.3 million from £174.2 million, while net rental income was £126.2 million from £116.6 million. Loss via change in fair value investment properties was £251.2 million, up from £88.0 million, while administrative costs rose to £25.3 million from £21.5 million.
The firm declared a total dividend per share of 28.0p, up from 25.8p. Looking forwards, Workspace said that rental income in the next year will be underpinned by growth in like-for-like rent roll.
Biotech Growth gained 1.5%.
The firm reported net asset value per share as at March 31 of 1,078.9 pence, up from 852.6p a year prior. NAV per share total return came to 26.5%, versus the firm’s benchmark, which returned 5.0%. This compared to negative 11.0% a year previously.
Chair Roger Yates said: ‘While performance this year has been encouraging and we are relieved to be seeing signs of recovery in the sector, the Board is aware that there is still some way to go before the company fully recovers its relative and absolute losses from the past two years. Nevertheless, our portfolio manager’s investment strategy has started once again to yield results.’
In Asia on Wednesday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was down 0.9%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.8%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was only fractionally lower. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed up 0.4%.
Services sector growth in Japan slowed last month, but the overall private sector of the country grew slightly faster, thanks to a swing to growth for manufacturers.
The au Jibun Bank services PMI came in at 53.8 points in May, down from 54.3 in April. Being above the neutral mark of 50 points, this still indicated growth.
Despite the slight setback for services, the au Jibun Bank composite PMI output index rose to 52.6 points in May from 52.3 in April, the fifth consecutive month of growth and the fastest since August last year.
On Monday, S&P had released the manufacturing component of the composite score, showing this rose into growth last month, to 50.4 points from 49.6 in April.
Meanwhile, Australia’s resource-rich economy posted anaemic growth in the first quarter, official data showed Wednesday, extending concerns about low growth and high prices.
Growth slowed to 0.1% in the quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported, using seasonally adjusted data.
‘Today’s national accounts confirm growth in the Australian economy was flat in the first three months of the year,’ said Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
The statistics bureau said that per capita GDP continued to fall in the first quarter of the year – meaning Australians are worse off, even if the economy is growing slightly. The economy grew 0.3% in the last quarter of 2023.
In the US on Tuesday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.4%, and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both up 0.2%.
Gold was quoted at $2,338.70 an ounce early on Wednesday, higher than $2,322.80 on Tuesday.
Brent oil was trading at $77.42 a barrel early on Wednesday, higher than $77.01 late Tuesday.
Still to come on Wednesday’s economic calendar, there are composite PMI readings from the UK, Germany, the US, and the eurozone.
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