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UK stock markets are likely to open higher on Wednesday, 3 February, tracking the upbeat Asian cues with Japanese Nikkei 225 rising a per cent at the close. Most of the Asian stock indices traded higher on Wednesday barring the headline stock indicators of China and HongKong.
Equities rebound on Wall Street jump
According to the latest trading data available with the respective bourses, Australia’s ASX 200 ended 0.92 per cent higher, South Korea’s Kospi advanced 1.06 per cent, China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 0.46 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.26 per cent, while India’s Nifty 50 traded 1.27 per cent higher in the early afternoon session.
The futures tied to the benchmark FTSE 100 were trading 0.38 per cent higher at around 0706 GMT indicating a positive start to the London equities on Wednesday.
Earlier yesterday, the FTSE 100 index finished at 6,516.65, up 50.23 points, or 0.78 per cent from the previous close of 6,466.42. In the first two trading days of February, the key index has amassed a gain of 1.70 per cent, staging a marginal rebound after witnessing direction paralysis in January.
A considerable part of the rally in the Asian markets can be attributed to the higher Wall Street closing on the back of optimism around corporate earnings and the ongoing inoculation programme across the United States. The Dow Industrials, Nasdaq Composite, and the S&P 500 soared 1.3 to 1.6 per cent on Tuesday.
Back in London, the two-vaccine immunisation drive supported the confidence amidst the domestic market participants as investors awaited the outcome of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting due on 4 February. The announcement of GDP growth rate for the October-December quarter in the second week of February is likely to provide rational visibility to the investors, sketching the recovery roadmap for the near future.
GBP vs USD (3 February)
(Source: EODHD/Others, Thomson Reuters)
GBP trips slightly
Meanwhile, the Great Britain pound (GBP) lost partially against the United States dollar (USD) on Wednesday at the interbank foreign exchange market. At around 0717 GMT, the GBP vs USD pair was trading at 1.3651, down 0.09 per cent from the previous close of 1.3665.
During the day so far, the currency pair has shuttled between a narrow range of 1.3645 and 1.3684, respectively. The Bank of England had fixed a reference exchange rate of 1.3663 USD and 1.1308 EUR against a unit of pound sterling on 1 February.
Commodity check
Commodities traded largely flat in the early trading on Wednesday with an ounce of gold hovering 0.03 per cent higher at $1,838.38. A range bound trading activity has been observed so far with the yellow metal oscillating in a tapered range of $1,836.33 and $1,844.98. On the other hand, a barrel of Brent crude and WTI crude oil traded 0.07 and 0.55 per cent higher, respectively.
