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Summary
- The benchmark FTSE 100 plunged more than 1 per cent from the day’s peak in the early afternoon deals on 9 March
- The UK GDP is expected to grow by 5.1 per cent annually as compared to the previous estimate of 4.2 per cent, OECD said
- At around 1409 GMT, the index was trading at 6,738.52, up 0.29 per cent from the previous close of 6,719.13
The benchmark FTSE 100 plunged more than 1 per cent from the day’s peak in the early afternoon deals on Tuesday, 9 March, even after the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) raised the GDP forecast for the United Kingdom. As per the projections of the OECD, the UK GDP is expected to grow by 5.1 per cent annually as compared to the previous estimate of 4.2 per cent.
FTSE 100 disregards OECD upgrade
Furthermore, the growth forecast for 2022 has been also revised to 4.7 per cent from the OECD’s December 2020 estimate of 4.1 per cent. A possible profit-booking was seen among the large-cap shares as the headline FTSE 100 pared all the morning gains with the index nearing the previous closing level.
London equities seemed to have disfavoured the upgrade by the OECD. According to the latest data available with the London Stock Exchange, the FTSE 100 dropped 1.42 per cent to an intraday bottom of 6,689.90 from the day’s high of 6,786.80, but managed to float in the positive territory. At around 1409 GMT, the index was trading at 6,738.52, up 0.29 per cent from the previous close of 6,719.13.
FTSE 100 (9 March)
(Source: EODHD/Others, Thomson Reuters)
FTSE 100 surfaced a marginal recovery as the futures linked to the Dow Industrials rose more than 0.6 per cent. Meanwhile, most of the European stock indices traded in the positive region barring Switzerland. Germany’s DAX rose 0.47 per cent, France’s CAC 40 gained 0.41 per cent, Spain’s IBEX 35 and Italy’s FTSE MIB jumped 0.62 per cent, each, while Switzerland’s SMI tripped 0.12 per cent.
GBP keeps up
The Great Britain pound (GBP) to United States dollar (USD) pair ticked sharply as sterling managed to hold the momentum against greenback in the afternoon trades. The GBP to USD currency pair was trading at 1.3889 (1418 GMT), up 0.47 per cent, from the previous close of 1.3824.
During the day so far, the currency pair has shuttled between a broad range of 1.3803 and 1.3901, at the interbank foreign exchange market. The Bank of England had fixed a reference exchange rate of 1.3812 USD and 1.1648 EUR against a unit of pound on 8 March.
