It was an anxious session for all bar the FTSE, which held onto the gains seen after Rishi Sunak’s furlough scheme announcement.
The threat of a second wave of coronavirus cases in those countries that have started to reopen, the ongoing tensions between the US and China, and the abject way in which Donald Trump has handled the crisis conspired to keep the Dow Jones fairly quiet.
At various points before the open it was expected to both rise and fall by 100 points. Instead it added 0.1%, lurking around 24250 as it struggled to work out what direction made the most sense.
The Eurozone was similarly undecided. The DAX clung onto a handful of points, while the CAC, perhaps fearing that France may end up in the same situation as Germany post-reopen, dipped 0.3%.
Standing tall was the FTSE, which climbed 1.2% as it repeatedly banged its head against its 6000 ceiling. There were a couple of major factors at play helping the UK index out. The extension of the government’s furlough scheme until the end of October was a clear boost, even if questions remain about companies sharing some of the cost from August onwards.
Meanwhile an 8.4% rise from Vodafone (LON:VOD) provided the FTSE with that extra bit of pizazz, the telecommunications company bucking the recent trend by maintaining its dividend in the face of the covid-19 pandemic (and the looming threat of an O2/Virgin mobile merger).
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