With the Dow Jones breaching 25000 for the first time since the start of last December overnight – the index was aided by some decent tech earnings and, more importantly, an aggressively dovish statement from the Federal Reserve – the European markets blossomed after the bell.
Keen to play catch up after spending much of January’s back end in the red, the FTSE continued its month-closing rally on Thursday, the index lifting another 50 points to make eyes at 7000. It wasn’t just the macro-landscape that gave the index a boost; it also received a helping hand from some of its key components. Shell’s 36% surge in annual profits sent the oil giant 3.5% higher as the session got underway, while Diageo (LON:DGE) rose 3.7% after getting a sizeable round in, the Guinness and Smirnoff-owner announcing a £660 million share buyback.
Sterling – whose recent, optimistic strength had been the main reason for the UK index spending most of the second half of January on a rather nasty losing streak – took a break from the week’s Brexit-led losses on Thursday. Against the dollar it rose 0.2%, creeping back above $1.314 in the process; against the euro, however, it could only reclaim 0.1%, just about lifting the pound off Wednesday’s one week lows.
On a GDP-heavy day – the preliminary flash estimate for the region as a whole is expected to stay at 0.2% in Q4 – the Eurozone indices got off to a very bright start. The DAX added another 1.2%, touching a near 2 month high of 11300, with the CAC climbing 1% to cross 5000.
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