AUS
NZ
UK
CA
USA
IND
UK stock markets are expected to start the day on a negative footing on Monday, 21 December, with FTSE 100 dropping further from the respective 10-month highs. With the Brexit trade deal negotiations reaching the penultimate stage, a direction-less outcome between the UK administration and the European Union could resist a meaningful spike in the equities from here.
According to market experts, investors seem to be waiting to take any considerable position after the new strain of coronavirus has renewed the earlier diminishing worries regarding the virus.
Following the restated course of fearfulness, Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed a comprehensive lockdown across London including various parts of southeast England.
The factors including the persisting uncertainty over the prospective trade deal between the UK and EU alongside the negative global cues with Wall Street settling in the negative region are also likely to keep the investors on the edge in this trading week. With Christmas falling on Friday, the four-day trading stretch is also expected to see some profit booking ahead of the festival if the market participants fail to adjudge any concrete grounds of adding the equities in their portfolio.
On Friday, the headline FTSE 100 index closed at 6,529.18, down 0.33 per cent, FTSE 250 ended at 20,116.29, down 0.89 per cent, FTSE 350 finished at 3,717.78, down 0.43 per cent, whereas the broader FTSE All-Share index concluded the day at 3,689.82, down 0.42 per cent. Due to the ongoing dejection among the investors, the GBP vs USD pair has also fallen from its 31-month peak with the pound sterling slipping by more than 1 per cent against the US dollar.
FTSE 100 (last week performance)
(Source: EODHD/Others, Thomson Reuters)
As per Reuters data, the GBP to USD currency pair was trading at 1.3360, down 1.18 per cent on Monday at around 05:48 am (GMT). According to the Bank of England’s currency conversion, a unit of pound sterling equalled 1.3591 US dollars as on 17 December.
GBP vs USD (21 December)
(Source: EODHD/Others, Thomson Reuters)
The spot gold recoiled back from the negative territory gaining 0.79 per cent to $1,895.56 per ounce on 21 December redeveloping the interest of investors in the safe haven basket of assets.
Meanwhile, the greenback restored its strength against a basket of currencies including the euro, Japanese yen, Swiss Franc, Chinese yuan and Great Britain pound. The crude oil prices recognised a substantial dip in the prices due to the re-established worries over the new variant of coronavirus with the Brent crude oil closing at $50.85, down 2.77 per cent and the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settling at $47.75, down 2.83 per cent.
However, the prolonged disappointment in the financial markets has not affected the crypto assets. The cryptocurrencies went higher in the trade today defying the odds over the new variant of coronavirus with bitcoin briefly surpassing the psychological level of $24,000 for the first time in history. According to the data available with Binance, the cryptocurrency was hovering around $23,842.77, up 1 per cent.
