The FTSE 100 is shining in the sun on the opening day of June, putting aside concerns over the spread of the ‘Indian’ variant, and its potential impact on the end of lockdown later this month.
A couple of hours into the trading day, the index is up by 1.22%, “benefitting from a strong performance from its miners and, after news of surging house prices thanks to the stamp duty holiday rush, some nice gains from the likes of Barratt Developments and Persimmon,” said Connor Campbell financial analyst at Spreadex.
The FTSE 100 is now trading at 7,108.43. If it finishes the day at that price it will be the index’s best close to a day in over two weeks.
“However, it spiked above 7,050 multiple times in the final week or so of May, but was unable to build any sense of momentum, wilting at the closing bell each day. If it can avoid the same fate this afternoon, the FTSE 100 could find itself turning a corner,” Campbell said.
The DAX was even stronger this Tuesday, rising 160 points – or 1.1% – to sit withing 20 points of 15,600. The German bourse only needs to squeeze a bit more juice out of investors to re-hit the all-time highs struck last week.
The CAC was also riding high, its near half a percent increase pushing it to a recent peak a fraction below 6,480.
Against a backdrop of the lowest covid rates in a year in the States, the Dow Jones is set to return from Memorial Day with a 200-point-plus increase, one that would leave it at its best price since May 11th, and only 320 points from its 36,000 all-time high.
FTSE 100 Top Movers
Rio Tinto (4.38%), Anglo American (4.35%) and M&G (3.91%) each saw impressive gains on the FTSE 100 early on Tuesday.
At the time of writing only five companies are in the red. The three FTSE 100 companies seeing the biggest falls in value are HSBC (-0.73%), Burberry (-0.51%) and London Stock Exchange Group (-0.28%).