Ahead of the ECB’s latest monthly meeting the Eurozone indices made a strong start to Thursday morning trading.
Following on from a full recovery from the Dow Jones last night, the DAX and CAC both added more than 0.5% after the bell. That leaves the DAX knocking at the door of 15,300, and around 230 points away from its all-time highs, with the CAC 10 or so points short of 6,200.
The European Central Bank isn’t expected to ruffle any feathers this Thursday, with analysts predicting that it will be another steady session from Christine Lagarde and co.
“But with a while until the next meeting – the central bank skips May – the ECB could use this opportunity to sharpen its forward guidance. There are also hawks lurking among the doves, meaning the get-together may not go as smoothly as forecast,” according to Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex.
While the Eurozone markets were aggressive in their continued rebound, the FTSE 100 is struggling to get back to 7,000. Instead, a 0.2% increase leaves it just above 6,900, with little on the agenda until tomorrow’s flash manufacturing and services PMIs to help generate momentum.
FTSE 100 Top Movers
Experian (3.68%), Polymetal International (2.55%) and RELX (2.08%) have made the most ground on the FTSE 100 at early morning trading.
BAE Systems (-3.84%), Antofagasta (-2.10%) and Rentokil (-1.74%) are the biggest fallers on the UK index so far.
Taylor Wimpey
Taylor Wimpey confirmed via a trading statement on Thursday that its order book has grown, as house sales had made a positive start to the year. The FTSE 100 company said that up to 18 April 2021, outstanding orders were worth £2.81bn (2020: £2,67bn) or the equivalent of 10,995 homes.
Taylor Wimpey also reported that net private sales for the same period had risen to 1.00, up from 0.90 the year before. The FTSE 100 company will payout a final dividend of 4.14p for 2020 and a similar amount again at the half-way through the current year.
