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Summary
- FTSE 100 trades lower as investors turned cautious about the recent spike in the global rise in Covid-19 cases.
- Retail sales growth in the UK was at 6.4% in July month, which is the slowest growth in the last five months.
FTSE100 was marginally in red on Tuesday early deals, as concern over the recent spike in the global COVID-19 cases overshadowed the strong earnings by some major companies. The top gainer among the blue-chip index was Flutter Entertainment Plc, which rose over 8% after it announced a 30% rise in adjusted revenue for the first half ended 30 June 2021 and expects its US business to turn profitable by 2023.
UK’s retail sales growth was at 6.4% in July month, which is the slowest growth in the last five months despite the full lifting of restriction in the UK on 19 July.
European Markets
Major European market indexes are trading slightly in the green. German blue-chip DAX index is up by 0.07% at 15,756, while the CAC 40 benchmark index of France was at 6,815, up by 0.04%. The European zone will be announcing its industrial production data for June month this week, a stronger data than the forecast will indicate a revival in the European economy.
Currency Markets
The pound trades slightly higher against the dollar at 1.3857, up by 0.09%; the dollar has been gaining against the pound in recent times after stronger than expected US job reports number last week, which boosted the expectations that the US Federal Reserve could slow down its asset buying program sooner than expected. The EUR/ GBP currency pair traded at 0.8458, up by 0.21%.
Commodities
Brent crude oil October futures trades at USD 69.62, up by 0.81%, while the WTI crude oil contract trades at USD 67.22, up by 1.11%. Crude oil prices slightly recovered from the three-week low after the rise in demand from the United States and European markets outweighed the investor’s concern on the recent rise of Covid-19 cases globally.
Gold August futures contract trades in the positive zone, up by 0.18% at USD 1729 per ounce.
Asian Markets
Major Asia Pacific indexes ended the day in the positive zone. Australia’s ASX200 closed at 7,562, up by 0.32%, while India’s Nifty 50 closed at 16,280, up by 0.13%. Nikkei 225 of Japan closed in the green, up by 0.24% at 27,888, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed in green, up by 1.23% at 26,605. China’s Shanghai Composite closed higher by 1.01% at 3,529.
Cryptocurrency
Major cryptocurrency trade in the positive zone, Bitcoin was up by 0.17% at USD 45683. Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, was up by 0.60% at USD 3116. Ethereum has gained over 26.05% in the last seven days as a significant software upgrade took place in the Ethereum network this week. London hard Fork went live in the blockchain network. The new change will lower the transaction fees in the network.
