Proactive Investors -
- FTSE 100 flat, Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) rallies 10%
- Energy price cap to drop 12%
- GfK consumer confidence down to -21
Standard Chartered boss calls bank's share price 'crap'
Standard Chartered boss Bill Winters said he thinks the bank's share price is "crap" after he revealed a major overhaul to streamline the company.
“You might be thinking [the stock prices is crap] and you’d be right, the stock price is crap [but] we’re completely focused on addressing the shareholder concerns. We are completely optimistic about our ability to continue to deliver on this plan,” he said.
Winters enjoyed a 22% bump in his pay package to $9.9 million, according to additional Bloomberg analysis.
Shares in the bank are up 9.5% on Friday after the lender said it would be hiking its dividend by 50% and launched another US$1 billion buyback.
Gas prices sink to lowest levels in three years
Wholesale gas prices have dropped to the lowest levels since the energy crisis began, providing both households and businesses with confidence that prices may begin to fall.
Dutch front-month futures, the benchmark European contract, dropped under €23 per megawatt hour.
It marks the lowest price since May 2021, with gas prices down more than 90% since they peaked at €339 per megawatt hour following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
UK prices have experienced a similar percentage drop as they fell to 57p per therm from peaks of 640p back in August 2022.
Earlier today, Ofgem announced that energy bills will fall to a two-year low in April as the price cap is lowered to £1,690 from £1,928 on an annualised basis.
Per kilowatt hour, electricity will cost 24.50p and gas will cost 6.04p for those on standard variable tariffs, down from 28.62p and 7.42p respectively previously.
London's woes continue as US, Japanese, German and French markets reach record highs
Yesterday, all three of New York's indices reached record highs after Nvidia's 16% jump added US$270 billion to the market, marking the largest single-session gain in the history of markets.
However, it wasn't just the US soaring. Tokyo, Frankfurt and Paris all saw their markets reach record highs on Thursday.
London was the only outlier, having lifted around 22 points.
"No bubbles please, we’re British... We don't like all this froth," Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Finalto said.
Jokes aside, prospects for the UK market appear to be growing cloudier every day.
While Nvidia was soaring in the US, over in the FTSE 250, similar-sounding Indivior led the risers after it announced plans to shift its primary listing to the US.
If it makes the move, the drugmaker will join a growing exodus from the London market, which has been hit by a post-Brexit downturn in liquidity and lacklustre valuations for those businesses quoted on the LSE.
Shareholders of TUI (LON:TUIT), the travel group, last week voted to cancel its London listing in favour of Frankfurt, while Flutter, the company behind Paddy Power, recently pressed 'go' on a New York quote.
Before that, mining giant BHP, building materials group CRH (LON:CRH), packaging group Smurfit Kappa (LON:SKG) and builders' merchant Ferguson turned their back on the FTSE 100 for primary listings in Australia or the US.
And there was resignation rather than shock when Cambridge-based chip designer ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) opted to IPO on Nasdaq, a move vindicated a more than doubling of the share price post floatation.
Meanwhile, in the US, more cash continues to be pumped into Wall Street every day, with it only a few weeks ago that Meta Platforms achieved Nvidia's same mileston with a US$200 billion gain in a single session.
FTSE 100 slips as IAG set to see Air Europa deal scrutinised
The FTSE 100 has slipped 5 points despite Standard Chartered rallying 8% after it ramped up bonuses and shareholder returns due to operating income jumping by 10%.
Leading the fallers with 2% drops are St James's Place, WPP (LON:WPP) and British Airways owner IAG.
International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:ICAG) saw shares dip after it was revealed Brussels was preparing to reveal its objections to the company's second attempt to purchase Air Europa, the Spanish airline.
The European Commission opened a probe into the deal last month, aimed at deciding whether the purchase would negatively affect consumers through the reduction of competition.
Advertising agency WPP also continued to shed its value, having led the FTSE 100 fallers on Thursday.
Mark Crouch, market analyst at eToro, said: “Advertising is typically first on the chopping block in times of economic uncertainty and with inflationary pressures hampering businesses across the globe in recent times, this has translated into an underwhelming set of results for WPP."
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