What All You Need To Know About The FTSE’s Performance On Friday?

The European broader equity benchmark FTSE 100 index traded 39.67 points higher at London Stock Exchange on Friday against its previous close

Stocks in Wall Street opened higher, with Basic Material and Financials driving the US market. Investment sentiment in the US market has received a boost through the week amid ongoing US-Sino trade talk optimism. At the time of writing, the broader indices in the US market were inching higher - Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was up 1.33 per cent, S&P 500 was trading up by 1.09 per cent, and technology benchmark index Nasdaq Composite was trading up by 0.6 per cent.

Equity markets across the world traded higher on Friday after the US trade secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the trade talks meeting held out in Beijing were productive and both US and China reached to a consensus on some significant regions on trade during the meeting.

On Corporate specific update at the global level, tax-sensitive industrials rallied highest on DJIA, led by forerunner Boeing Co (BA.N), United Technologies (UTX.N), 3M Co (MMM.N), and Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N). Stocks of beverage company, PepsiCo (PEP.N) were trading higher, even after the company forecasted a significant drop in full-year profit. Shares of Amazon .com Inc (AMZN.O) were trading low as the company scrapped its plan for a second head office in New York City.

Coming to the European Market, the broader equity benchmark FTSE 100 index traded higher at 7236.68 on Friday (February 15, 2019), and ended the session 39.7 points higher (0.55%) against its previous close. The blue-chip index hit a new four months high of 7,261.63 during the Friday’s session. Another European equity benchmark Stoxx 600 ended 1.41% higher at 368.9 on Friday.

At the corporate level in the European market, Countryside Properties Plc appointed Simon Townsend as a non-executive director of the company with effect from March. Merian Global Investors UK Ltd lowered its stake in clothing retailer Joules Group Plc (JOUL.L) from earlier 6.47% to 5% on Friday. James Latham Plc announced (LTHM.L) on Friday that it has acquired Irish Timber merchant Abbey Wood Agencies, and this is the company’s first deal out of the UK boundaries.

Performers and Laggards on the London Stock Exchange

Stocks like Acacia Mining Plc (ACA.L), Renewi Plc (RWI.L) and Melrose Industries Plc (MRO.L) were among the top performers at London Stock Exchange and were up by 8.5%, 5.9% and 5.5% respectively, while on the laggard side stocks like Plus500 Ltd (PLUS.L), Petra Diamonds Ltd (PDL.L) and Puretech Health Plc (PRTC.L) were among the losers at the London Stock Exchange and were down by 12.2%, 11.4% and 6.7% respectively.

At LSE, stocks like Lloyds Banking Group Plc (LLOY.L), Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L) and Glencore Plc (GLEN.L) were among the top active volume stocks on Friday.

Broader Index FTSE 100 Cues

Stocks like Melrose Industries Ltd (MRO.L), Coca-Cola HBC AG (CCH.L) and Tesco Plc (TSCO.L) were among the gainers on the broader index FTSE 100 and were up by 5.5%, 4.02% and 2.9% respectively, while on the other side stocks like Standard Life Aberdeen Plc (SLA.L), Kingfisher Plc (KGF.L) and Next Plc (NXT.L) were the laggards on the FTSE 100 index and were down by 5.9%, 3.0% and 2.1% respectively.

On sector specific front, almost every industry segment on the broader equity benchmark FTSE 100 ended higher against their previous close, while among those Basic Materials, Financials and Industrials were key moving sectors on Friday.

Commodity Market Cues

At the time of writing,

• Brent Crude Oil was trading higher on Friday at $ 66.51 per barrel
• West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil was trading higher again at $ 55.9 per barrel
• Gold was at $ 1324.75 an ounce

London Metal Exchange Cues

At the time of writing,

• LME Aluminium was at $1,828.5 per tonne
• LME Copper was at $6,190.0 per tonne
• LME Lead was at $2,068 per tonne

Forex Cues

At the time of writing,

• British Pound was trading against the US Dollar (GBP/USD) at 1.289
• Euro was trading against British Pound (EUR/GBP) at 0.875
• US Dollar index was trading against majors at $96.92

Money Market Cues

At the time of writing,

• US 10-year treasury bond yield was at 2.664%
• British 10-year treasury bond yield was trading at 1.166%