FTSE 100 makes a strong start to the week as commodities, bank gain

UK Market News: The UK stock market traded in green on Monday, with the blue-chip FTSE 100 index hovered near two-month highs boosted by economically sensitive commodity and banking stocks after upbeat U.S. and Chinese economic data eased fear about an imminent global recession. The Don’t Pay UK group is calling for action against rising energy bills with already 80,000 pledges to refuse payments.

Hargreaves Lansdown Plc (LON: HL.): The share of financial services company, Hargreaves Lansdown Plc were up by around 7.5%, with a day’s high of GBX 966.40. The company has beat its annual profit expectations helped by better cost management.

PageGroup Plc (LON: PAGE): The share of UK-based recruitment business, PageGroup Plc fell by around 41%, with a day’s low of GBX 401.80. The company reported a 79.3% jump in half-year operating profit even after the economy deal with high inflation and risks of a slowdown.

Joules Group Plc (LON: JOUL): The share of the UK-based lifestyle company, Joules Group jump by around 42.5%, with a day’s high of GBX 52.00. The company said it was in talks over a potential equity investment of about £15 million from retailer Next Plc. 

US Markets: The US market is likely to get a positive start as suggested by future indices. S&P 500 future was up by 35.87 points or 0.86% at 4,180.55, while the Dow Jones 30 futures was up by 0.79% or 257.97 points at 33,061.44. The technology-heavy index Nasdaq Composite future was up by 1.02% at 13,341.92 (At the time of writing – 9:42 AM ET).

US Market News:

The Share of American software company, Palantir (PLTR) plunged by 15.6% in premarket trading session after it reported an unexpected quarterly loss and lowered its full year forecast due to the uncertain timing of some government contracts.

The share of the biopharmaceutical company, Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT) gained 4.2% in the premarket trading session after the maker of blood disorder treatments will be brought by Pfizer (PFE) for US$5.4 billion or US$68.50 pet share in cash.

European Indices Performance (at the time of writing):

FTSE 100 Index One Year Performance (as on 8 August 2022)

(Source: Refinitiv)

Top 3 Volume Stocks in FTSE 100*: Lloyds Banking Group plc (LLOY), Barclays Plc (BARC), Vodafone Group Plc (VOD).

Top 3 Sectors traded in green*: Real Estate (1.24%), Industrials (1.15%) and Utilities (1.09%).

Top 3 Sectors traded in red*: Healthcare (-0.79%).

London Stock Exchange: Stocks Performance (at the time of writing)

Crude Oil Future Prices*: Brent future crude oil (future) price and WTI crude oil (future) price were hovering at $93.41/barrel and $87.69/barrel, respectively.

Gold Price*: Gold price was quoting at US$ 1,798.25 per ounce, up by 0.39% against the prior day closing.

Currency Rates*: GBP to USD: 1.2092; EUR to USD: 1.0187.

Bond Yields*: US 10-Year Treasury yield: 2.805%; UK 10-Year Government Bond yield: 1.9800%.

*At the time of writing