FTSE 100 closes at record high, boosted mainly by oil and earnings
The London Stock Exchange Group, Rentokil and oil stocks helped lift the FTSE 100 index to a new record high.
The FTSE 100, a commodity-heavy index, rose up to 0.8% during the session and reached a new record high of 9594.82 before falling back down to 0.7%.
Shell and BP, two of the world's largest oil companies, gained 3,2% and 3.8% each after U.S. sanctions were imposed on Rosneft (a major Russian supplier) and Lukoil (a major Russian supplier).
The London Stock Exchange Group's earnings jumped 6.7%, after the exchange operator announced it would sell 20 percent of its post-trade business. It also announced a surprise buyback of 1 billion pounds ($1.34 billion), and reported better than expected third-quarter results.
Rentokil's share price soared 9.8% following the pest control company's announcement of a higher-than-expected quarterly increase in organic revenue.
The UK equity market has been supported this week by a largely positive earnings season, a rise in commodity stocks, and signs of a cooling of inflation which supported bets of an interest rate cut from the Bank of England. The FTSE 100 looks set to have its best performance since mid-April.
The FTSE Midcap Index of domestically oriented shares rose by 0.6% and ended at a four-year high.
The index of UK precious-metal miners rose 3.7% in line with gold prices as U.S. sanction against Russia and the possibility of new export controls to China fuelled geopolitical fears, boosting demand for safe haven assets.
InterContinental Hotels, the owner of Holiday Inns, saw its shares fall 1.5% on the back of a slowing in growth in U.S. market. This was overshadowed by a significant increase in revenue.
Molten Ventures jumped up 14.6% in the FTSE 250 index after it forecasted a 7.2% increase in its net assets value.
AJ Bell dropped 2.4% from the top of the FTSE 250 index after it reported 1.5 billion pounds ($2.01billion) in outflows at the end September for its advised platform segment. This resulted in a lower net inflows.
(source: Reuters)
