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UK stock markets opened on a flat note on Friday, 5 February, as market participants remained cautious ahead of the macroeconomic data release with the Bank of England holding the interest rates at 0.1 per cent in its recent policy meeting. The market optimism failed to lift the prospects of London equities on Friday even as the daily rate of coronavirus cases in England fell in the last week.
European markets
Domestic markets traded largely unchanged, in line with the trading pattern across the major markets of Europe with Germany’s DAX, Spain’s IBEX 35 and Switzerland’s SMI oscillating in a flat to negative region. On the other hand, France’s CAC 40 rose nearly 0.50 per cent in the wee hours of trading.
Up until 0851 GMT, the FTSE 100 shuttled between a narrow range of 6,495.40 and 6,516.20, whereas the broader stock indicators including FTSE 250, FTSE 350 and FTSE All-Share jumped 0.20 to 0.50 per cent.
Major movers
Shares of Burberry Group Plc (LON: BRBY), Lloyds Banking Group Plc (LON: LLOY), Barclays Plc (LON: BARC), Just Eat Takeaway Plc, Barratt Developments Plc, Polymetal International Plc and Avast Plc emerged as the major gainers out of the 101-constituent pack of benchmark FTSE 100.
Whereas, the stocks of Kingfisher Plc (LON: KGF), Johnson Matthey Plc, Aviva Plc, Rolls-Royce Plc (LON: RR), Pearson Plc, and BAE Systems Plc were the major laggards among FTSE 100 shares on Friday.
House prices jump
Meanwhile, UK house prices rose 5.4 per cent to £251,968 in January 2021 from £239,253 in the corresponding month of the previous year, the Halifax House Price index showed. On a month-on-month basis, there was a marginal drop of 0.3 per cent. Earlier in December 2020, the average price of houses stood at £252,833.
The increase in the average house prices could be running out of steam, said Russell Galley, Managing Director, Halifax, adding that the annual rate of house price inflation has cooled to its lowest level since August 2020.
GBP holds strength
The Great Britain Pound (GBP) held the morning gains, trading slightly above 1.37 against the US dollar (USD). Around 0843 GMT, the GBP vs USD currency pair was trading at 1.3702, up 0.23 per cent from the previous close of 1.3670 at the interbank foreign exchange market.
During the day so far, the currency pair has touched a high and low of 1.3707 and 1.3662, respectively. The Bank of England had fixed a currency conversion rate of 1.3644 USD and 1.1360 EUR vs a unit of pound sterling on 3 February.
Infection rate slows down
Under the weekly review of Covid-19 situation, the Public Health England (PHE) has said that the rate of infection declined across all the age groups in all regions with the daily rate of hospital admissions lessening to 25.25 from 33.66 per 100,000.
West Midlands has the highest rate of daily infections, as well as the rate of hospital admissions. The people belonging to the age group of 85 years and more have seen the most hospitalisation, PHE said in the survey.
