There is a decent showing across European equities including a 0.6% gain in the FTSE 100 to 7,148.
“That’s quite surprising given how a cocktail of issues have been clouding the market in recent sessions, namely rising bond yields making tech stocks less attractive, ongoing supply chain issues, the spike in energy prices and broader inflation, and the Evergrande drama still playing out,” says Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
The UK market was propelled by miners, oil producers and financials – all beneficiaries of strong economic activity, which is again perhaps a surprising movement given growing fears over global economic growth as we head towards 2022.
“Oil producers are benefiting from higher oil prices but demand for miners and financials might represent investors rotating once more from high growth stocks towards lower rated names that offer growth at a cheaper price, even if that growth is less racy.”
IPOs were in the spotlight as two new entrants got off to a good start, and one recent name dug itself a deeper hole.
“Oxford Nanopore floated at 425p and had hit 570p within the first hour of trading. Among small caps, Made Tech listed at 122p and quickly moved higher to 148.5p,” said Mould.
“In contrast, Parsley Box hung his head in shame as its shares continued to fall lower. Having listed in March at 200p, the company issued a shocking update over the summer which pulled the price down. The stock has slumped even further to now trade at 77.5p after further setbacks, representing a 61% decline since IPO.”
FTSE 100 Top Movers
Anglo American (3.14%), Diageo (2.37%) and Evraz (2.33%) are the top risers on Thursday morning on the FTSE 100.
Melrose Industries (-3.04%), Barratt Developments (-2.6%) and British American Tobacco (-2.08%) make up the bottom three.