It was a somewhat flat day for British performance indices. That isn’t to say that nothing happened, rather that performance indicators failed to deliver any kind of groundbreaking revelations one way or the other.
BP posted a dismal set of results for the last quarter, which saw the day’s trading get off to a lulling start. This was followed by news that Labour had agreed to a general election on the condition of a No-Deal Brexit being ruled out. After three years of little compromise on either side, it was refreshing to see Labour implementing a measure that it should also apply to Brexit negotiations – namely, being more forthcoming with their support for a deal, on a conditional basis.
Speaking on the Pound and other market indices leading up to the final bell, Spreadex Financial Analyst Connor Campbell stated,
As Britain takes another step towards a general election, the pound held its nerve – the FTSE, on the other hand, had a far rougher Tuesday.”
“Perhaps sensing the inevitable – Boris Johnson, alongside the Lib Dems and SNP, were looking to push the country to the polls regardless of what Corbyn and co. felt – Labour dropped their opposition to a general election, stating their ‘condition of taking no deal off the table has now been met’. A December vote, then, is now basically on, though the exact date of the ballot is still up in the air.”
“Hoping that an election will create some Christmas clarity – however misguided that belief might be – the pound just about swung positive after the news. It didn’t move much, mind, rising 0.1% against the dollar and euro alike.”
“With sterling in the green, a good chunk of its banking and housing stocks in the red, and BP down more than 4% after a terrible set of Q3 results, the FTSE dropped 0.6%. That took the UK index back under 7300, and made it easily the day’s worst performer.”
“In contrast the DAX and CAC fell 0.2% and 0.1% respectively, while the Dow Jones climbed past 27100 despite Alphabet sliding 2% following last night’s third quarter earnings update.”
Elsewhere in political and macro economic news, there have been updates from; new Brexit deal agreed, UK economy looks likely to avoid recession, Hong Kong protester shooting and China’s strategy, the Supreme Court rules against Boris, the collapse of Thomas Cook (LON: TCP), the bid for the London Stock Exchange (LON: LSE), Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON: LLOY), Barclays (LON: BARC) and Deutsche Bank (ETR: DBK).