Welcome to the investing.com UK weekly FTSE 100 update, designed to keep investors informed on the latest market movements and key developments. In this concise report, you'll find a summary of the last week's significant news, and trends affecting the index, helping you stay ahead with timely insights for your investment decisions.
We update every Friday morning as soon as the London Stock Exchange (LSE) market opens at 8:00am UK local time (GMT+1).
FTSE 100 Share Price Opening 17th June 2024
The opening share price for this week, Monday 17th June, was 8,146.86, which sat 0.21% lower than at open on Friday 14th June, indicating that the FTSE had some ground to try and make up for the week ahead.
Investor Sentiment This Week For FTSE 100 Predictions
The FTSE 100 started the week sluggishly, with a 0.06% drop on Monday, but has seen positive movement each day since then.
A big influence for investor sentiment this week was the Bank Of England (BoE) policy meeting to decide on interest rates. While key rates haven’t shifted from 5.25%, this hasn’t shocked analysts, and the voting split still serves as a clue for when and how aggressive future action might take place.
Andrew Bailey, the Bank’s governor, said: “It’s good news that inflation has returned to our 2% target. We need to be sure that inflation will stay low and that’s why we’ve decided to hold rates at 5.25% for now.” Core inflation sits at 3.5%, which is still higher than the euro-zone’s 2.9%.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS), which has now posted its prices day data, showed the consumer price index was up 2.0% year-on-year in May, finally returning to match the Bank of England's target.
The FTSE 100 is currently down around 2.6% from its all-time-high on 15th May of this year, but it’s important to remember that the index is still up by approximately 6.2% compared to the start of the year. For now, the FTSE 100 can’t seem to break through the two key moving averages - with likely added pressure from snap elections both in Europe and on home turf.
Long-term investors are keeping an eye on the index and snapping up value buys wherever they can.
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We can see that the Investing.com UK community’s sentiment towards the FTSE 100 index hasn’t wavered a great deal over the last seven days, with a 25-75 Bearish-to-Bullish split, when compared to last week’s 20-80 split. Could this indicate that the optimistic swing towards future modest growth continues?
Notable Movements & News
Hargreaves Lansdown Happy With New Takeover Offer
After rejecting a takeover offer priced at 985p per share last month, investment services giant Hargreaves Lansdown PLC (LON:HRGV)) has said that it would accept a new cash offer of 1140p per share from a consortium of private equity companies. After deciding to engage with the new offer, Hargreaves Lansdown is now in the process of providing access for the consortium so that due diligence processes can move forward.
The previous deadline for a final offer has now been pushed to mid-July. HRGV Co-founder and largest shareholder Peter Hargreaves said he was open to backing a take-private deal, but not at the price of the offer previously floated back in May.
Sainsbury’s Banking on NatWest Acquisition
A significant acquisition announcement at the end of last week has been continuing to ripple through the London Stock Exchange this week.
NatWest Group PLC (LON:NWG) announced its decision to spend approximately £2.5 billion in acquiring Sainsbury’s Bank’s retail banking assets, including all unsecured personal loans and liabilities. The transaction is expected to happen in the first half of next year (2025), and current Sainsbury’s Bank customers will continue with their current services without any disruption or changes until then.
This deal is the latest in a trending series of consolidation across the UK banking sector, with larger institutions seeking to buy up more agile, smaller companies in order to improve their competitive edge.
Raspberry Pi IPO: Still A Sweet Deal?
DIY computer kit producer Raspberry Pi Holdings PLC (LON:RPI) saw mixed results this week after launching its Initial Public Offering (IPO) last Friday. Initially priced at 420p per share, the stock hit a high of 440p on Monday 17th, before slowly losing steam and now hovering just below its opening price.
Despite this, investors have shown strong positive sentiment towards the company, with the IPO moving into oversubscription multiple times. This IPO has been seen as a significant boost not only for Raspberry Pi (who plan to use the funds to support numerous initiatives which include developing a more robust supply chain and accelerating product R&D), but also for the London Stock Exchange and its ability to nudge other tech firms to consider listing on the UK market.
Today's FTSE 100 Close
The above investor sentiment and factors driving this week's ‘Footsie’ volatility meant that today the FTSE 100 is likely to close at a price which sits higher than the weekly FTSE 100 opening price of 8,146.86.
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