The FTSE 100 briefly crept over the 6,800 mark for the first time since January on early Monday morning as figures emerged from China and the US stimulus package was signed into law by Joe Biden. According to a Deutsche Bank survey of online brokerage users, Americans are planning to use 37% of their cheques to buy equities.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, commented on the results and their potential implications for a recovery.
“It is like the markets have remembered to be happy about economic recovery again. For a time the focus was so fixed on accompanying inflation risks, the upside from a rebound in the economy as countries reopen was lost,” said Mould
“Impressive growth figures from China and the passage of Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package in the US helped briefly launch the FTSE 100 over the 6,800 mark for the first time since January on Monday morning.”
“The scale of China’s recovery from the pandemic, which beat analysts’ expectations, offers an imperfect trailer for what might happen when there is a full reopening in the West.”
FTSE 100 Top Movers
Flutter Entertainment (6.96%), BT Group (2.70%) and Kingfisher (2.49%) are the day’s biggest risers at early morning trading on Monday.
At the bottom, Standard Life Aberdeen (-1.73%), Evraz (-1.68%) and Morrison Supermarkets (-1.39%) saw the biggest drop in their share prices.
Deliveroo
Deliveroo confirmed on Monday morning that it will sell £1bn ($1.4bn) in new shares ahead of its initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange.
The confirmed also announced in a statement that its listing would also include the sale of shares by some existing shareholders.
Bitcoin
After getting close towards the end of February, bitcoin broke above $60,000 over the weekend.
The cryptocurrency’s previous all-time high of $58,332 was just under a month ago and has threatened on a number of occasions since to go past the $60,000 mark.