AUS
NZ
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CA
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IND
Summary
- FTSE 100 trades in green led by airlines and hotel stock after the US government indicated that it could lift travel restrictions on European citizens.
- European markets trade in red ahead of next week policy meeting of the European Central Bank.
FTSE 100 is trading in positive territory, up by 24 points at 7,036 in the mid-morning trades. The rise in the blue-chip index was led by the hotel sector stocks like Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG), which was up by 4.06%, Whitbread Plc up by 3.83%, and airlines stock IAG Group, which owns British Airline, up by 3.46% after the US President Joe Biden announced that US is reviewing the Covid-19 situation and plans to lift US travel restrictions for Europe and other countries. European and UK airlines industry has suffered severely due to the Covid-19 pandemic, losing all of the last summer peak vacation season.
European Markets
Major European markets indices trade in red; the German blue-chip DAX index was down by 0.05% at 15621 and the French index CAC40 trading at 6,460, down by 0.51%. Though, the Eurozone inflation number for the month of June has fallen back to 1.9%, dropping below the European Central Bank’s 2% target. Inflation number has significance ahead of next week policy-setting meeting of European Central Bank.
Currency Markets
The pound was down by 0.16% at 1.3807 against the US dollar amid concern of inflation and rise in Delta variant cases ahead of 19 July unlock, while the EUR/ GBP currency pair traded at 0.8548, up by 0.09%.
Commodities
Brent crude oil contract trades at USD 73.36, down by 0.15%. Meanwhile, WTI Crude oil August future traded at USD 71.62, down by 0.04%. On a weekly basis, oil prices are down by over 4% as investors are worried about the increasing supply of crude oil into the market by OPEC+ countries.
Gold futures contract is edging lower at USD 1816 per ounce, down by 0.68%, snapping a three-day winning run. Although, on a weekly basis, the precious metal still manages to gain. This is the fourth consecutive week the gold contract has closed in green because of rising cases of delta variant and investors looking to park their funds in safe-haven investment.
Asian Markets
Asia Pacific index made a mixed closing on Friday, Nikkei 225 of Japan closed in red, down by 0.98% at 28,003 after Bank of Japan downgraded its real GDP forecast for 2021 to 3.8% growth. China’s Shanghai Composite closed at 3539, down by 0.71% and India’s Nifty 50 closed in red at 15923, down by 0.01%. On the other hand, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up by 0.39% at 28082, Australia’s ASX200 closed at 7348, up by 0.17%.
