Having bounced back from a five-month low on Thursday, the FTSE decided it would spend Friday in full rebound mode, thanks to banking stocks.
Enjoying a financial sector surge, the FTSE 100 gleefully watched Lloyds, HSBC, and Standard Chartered all rally more than 4% apiece. The real winner, though, was Barclays (LON:BARC), having booked a £1.1 billion profit, the bank watched its shares jump 7%.
These gains saw the FTSE add 1.29% on Friday, pushing it up from 5,723 on Thursday morning, to 5,860 points as trading came to a close on Friday – the biggest one-day gain seen since the start of September.
Likewise, the Eurozone equities joined in on the fun, with the CAC posting a 1.20% rise, up to 4,909 points, while the DAX rose by a hardly shabby margin of 0.82%, up to 12,645.
The gains across Europe were sorely needed after a week of lockdown fears hampering market sentiment. And while FTSE equities likely rallied off of a mixture of positive summer performance data and a weak pound, today’s rally was impressive, given that it required European equities to ignore the sluggish start of the Dow Jones during the afternoon.
Speaking on the Dow’s performance, and the uncertain outlook for the US index, Spreadex financial analyst, Connor Campbell, stated:
“A negative start in the US failed to dent Europe’s gains this Friday, while the Dow Jones [struggled] following the latest stimulus update.”
“Despite Nancy Pelosi stating that she and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are ‘just about there’ regarding a covid-19 relief plan, Trump’s economic advisor Larry Kudlow has claimed ‘the ball’s not moving much right now’, once again casting doubt on the chance of a pre-election package.”
“The concern is that, though a Joe Biden victory would potentially lead to a larger stimulus bill, it would also leave tight-fisted Republicans with little impetus to do anything that might help the incoming President during the ‘lame-duck’ period between November and January. And that could mean no economic relief until the New Year.”