The European markets blossomed as Monday got underway, despite a rather disappointing overnight session from Asia (and China especially).
On the day of the final ever pre-Brexit Budget – a fact one assumes is completely unrelated to the early gains – the FTSE shot up 40 points, pushing it back within touching distance of 7000 having at points teased levels not seen for 22 months last Friday.
Whatever is inside Philip Hammond’s big red book won’t be a factor until the closing stretch of the European session, given that the Chancellor is delivering an unusually late Budget, freeing up the UK index to follow the general, if likely still fragile, upswing in sentiment.
As for sterling, the currency was pretty lifeless after the bell, which isn’t great considering its second half of October slump. Against the dollar it is continuing to lurk the wrongs side of $1.285, while against the euro it managed to nudge up 0.1%, but not enough to significantly lift it from its recent 3 and a half week lows.
Over in the eurozone the region’s indices were in a similar mood to the FTSE, with the DAX rising half a percent to tickle 11250.
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