The FTSE 100 was on the verge of making history on Friday as London’s leading index edged towards its all time highs.
Investors will be closely watching the index to see if the 7,877 closing high is breached today. The highest intraday level for the FTSE 100 is 7,903.
Although the FTSE 100 is poor representation of the UK economy, better than expected UK GDP figures have helped sentiment and sent the index through 7,800 to trade at 7,827 at the time of writing.
UK GDP
Fears of a UK technical recession receded on Friday after the economy expanded 0.1% in November as the services sector performer better than expected. The World Cup also boosted activity as football fans flocked to pubs for England games.
“The UK economy is doing its best to avoid falling into a technical recession with another month of growth in November. We’ll have to wait for the final quarter figures for 2022 – out next month – to confirm whether it has managed to do that,” said Ed Monk, Associate Director, Personal Investing at Fidelity International.
3 key messages from the just released UK GDP numbers
— Mohamed A. El-Erian (@elerianm) January 13, 2023
With a 0.1% expansion, growth surprised on the upside (consensus forecast was -0.2%);
Services continued to power growth (manufacturing contracted);
Judging from certain GDP components, the labor market remains relatively tight
UK Banks
UK Banks were among top risers on Friday as investors reacted to the upbeat economic data and banking results from the US.
Lloyds shares were up 2% and approaching the key psychological level of 50p and Natwest was up 2.2%.
JP Morgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup are all set to report on Friday. Those received at the time of writing were were broadly inline with estimates but Wells Fargo shares were down 4% pre-market on a $3.3bn Q4 operating loss.
JP Morgan’s EPS was better than expected.