British stocks inch higher as China stimulus hopes buoy miners
The internationally-oriented FTSE 100 was up 0.1% as of 0929 GMT, after logging its fourth straight week of gains on Friday, while the domestically-oriented midcap FTSE 250 index rose 0.3%.
The blue-chip index had surged to all-time highs last week as investors took comfort in a relatively U.S. tariff-shielded market, higher commodity prices and hopes of a Bank of England rate cut.
On the day, the UK industrial metal mining stocks index led sectoral gains with a 3.3% rise, tracking a rise in metal prices after China vowed to stabilise its industrial growth, and on hopes for more stimulus from the world's largest commodity consumer.
Miners Glencore gained 3.7%, Anglo American rose 3.5%, Antofagasta advanced 3.3%, and Rio Tinto up 2.8%.
Banks and financial services were down 0.3%, with Standard Chartered losing 0.9%, while Barclays fell 0.6%.
The Bank of England has asked some lenders to test their resilience to potential U.S. dollar shocks, three sources told Reuters.
Aerospace and defence index lost 1.1%, led by a 2.1% fall in BAE Systems.
The UK's personal goods index lost 1.6%, dragged down by Burberry that lost 1.9% after surging to a near 17-month high on Friday.
Meanwhile, a Deloitte survey showed British consumer sentiment had a marked fall for the first time in nearly three years last month, reflecting increased worries about job security.
Property site Rightmove said that asking prices for newly advertised British houses and apartments recorded their biggest July fall in more than 20 years this month.
In corporate updates, BP named Albert Manifold, the former boss of building materials producer CRH, as its new chairman on Monday.
The Financial Times reported on Sunday that London Stock Exchange Group is weighing whether to launch 24-hour trading and is looking into the practicalities of increasing its trading hours.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Zawya
14 hours ago
- Zawya
Gold drops as dollar firms, trade deal hopes sap safe-haven demand
Gold prices slipped on Friday, weighed down by a stronger U.S. dollar and signs of progress in U.S.-EU trade negotiations that dented safe-haven demand. Spot gold fell 0.7% at $3,343.69 per ounce by 9:31 a.m. ET (1331 GMT). U.S. gold futures fell 0.8% to $3,345.20. The U.S. dollar index rebounded from a more-than-two-week low, making bullion more expensive for overseas buyers, while benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields rose. "The Japan deal was significant, and there's hope for a U.S.-EU agreement before the August 1 deadline. That's sapping safe-haven demand as elevated risk appetite drives capital toward risk assets," said Peter Grant, vice president and senior metals strategist at Zaner Metals. Following this week's U.S.-Japan trade deal, the European Commission said a trade deal with the U.S. is within reach, even as EU members approved counter-tariffs on U.S. goods in case talks fail. On the data front, U.S. jobless claims fell to a three-month low, signaling a stable labor market despite sluggish hiring. Stable labor market data is expected to give the Federal Reserve cover to hold rates steady at 4.25%-4.50% at its meeting next week, even as inflation shows signs of picking up due to U.S. President Donald Trump's import tariffs. Trump's surprise visit to the central bank marked a fresh attempt to pressure Chair Jerome Powell, with the President again urging a deep rate cut. Gold may attract some "buying interest probably at $3,300 level, but perhaps not breaking out to new all-time highs until after the Fed decision," Grant said, adding that the meeting could signal rate cuts later this year. Gold typically performs well during periods of uncertainty and in low-interest-rate environments. Spot silver fell 0.4% to $38.91 per ounce, but was still on track for a weekly gain of about 2%. Platinum was 1.6% lower at $1,385.20, while palladium rose 0.2% at $1,229.94.
Zawya
16 hours ago
- Zawya
Meta to halt political advertising in EU from October, blames EU rules
Meta Platforms will end political, electoral, social issue advertising on its platform in the European Union in early October because of the legal uncertainties due to EU rules targeting political advertising, the U.S. social media company said on Friday. Meta's announcement echoed Alphabet unit Google's decision announced last November, underscoring Big Tech's pushback against EU rules aimed at reining in their power and making sure that they are more accountable and transparent. The European Union legislation, called the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation and which will apply from Oct. 10, was triggered by concerns about disinformation and foreign interference in elections across the 27-country bloc. The EU law requires Big Tech companies to clearly label political advertising on their platforms, who paid for it and how much as well as which elections are being targeted or risk fines up to 6% of their annual turnover. "From early October 2025, we will no longer allow political, electoral and social issue ads on our platforms in the EU," Meta said in a blog post. "This is a difficult decision - one we've taken in response to the EU's incoming Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation, which introduces significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties," it said. Meta said TTPA obligations create what it said is an untenable level of complexity and legal uncertainty for advertisers and platforms operating in the EU. It said the EU rules will ultimately hurt Europeans. "We believe that personalised ads are critical to a wide range of advertisers, including those engaged on campaigns to inform voters about important social issues that shape public discourse," Meta said. "Regulations, like the TTPA, significantly undermine our ability to offer these services, not only impacting effectiveness of advertisers' outreach but also the ability of voters to access comprehensive information," the company added.
Zawya
16 hours ago
- Zawya
Record-high stocks tremble as big week for market risk looms
Investors cashed out of record-high global stocks on Friday and the dollar headed for its first weekly drop in four, as markets trembled ahead of next week's U.S. jobs data, Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan meetings and Donald Trump's tariff deadlines. MSCI's global equity index was 0.3% lower after hitting an all-time peak on Thursday, after Japan's Topix index ended the day 0.9% lower, having also hit a record high a day earlier. Futures trading signalled Wall Street's Nasdaq Composite would flatline later in the day, with sentiment still buoyed by Google parent Alphabet's robust earnings that propelled the tech-heavy index to its latest peak on Thursday. Investors said they did not expect the markets' glass-half-full approach to trade war risks to last if jobs growth and earnings slow but the U.S. Federal Reserve also douses expectations that it will rush to the rescue by easing monetary policy. With the Fed's next rate decision on July 29 as Chair Jerome Powell comes under pressure from Trump to quit, August 1 brings the latest batch of monthly U.S. jobs data and the deadline for U.S. trade deals with Europe and other countries. "We've come to this sort of real, sort of pinch point of high risk, of things going in either direction, and markets have just breezed through it so far," Premier Miton CIO Neil Birrell said. "I'm genuinely struggling to work out why the bond markets seem relatively complacent and why equity markets have kept going up," he said, especially with disruption caused by trade uncertainty now showing up in companies' earnings. TECH, CENTRAL BANKS The dollar index, was heading for a 0.6% weekly drop, in the latest sign that U.S. policy and debt risk meant it was no longer viewed by investors as a haven asset when stock markets turn lower. "We know that the dollar tends to depreciate when there is a proper risk-on wave,' Amundi Investment Institute cross-asset strategist Federico Cesarini said. 'But the other side of the correlation, risk-off (and) dollar up, is not with us anymore.' Tech titans Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft may all issue tariff-related updates with next week's earnings reports, just as parts of the tech sector have shown signs of revenues turning hard to forecast because of stockpiling and trade anxiety. Chipmaker Intel's shares dropped 5% in pre-market trade on Friday as it forecast steeper quarterly losses than expected and said it had halted or scrapped new factory projects in the U.S. and Europe. Money markets are only pricing about 42 basis points (bps) of Fed easing this year, setting next week's monthly non-farm payrolls report up as a major risk event if hiring has slowed and rate cut expectations have not risen. Trump has kept up pressure on Powell to cut rates after a rare presidential visit to the central bank on Thursday, although he said he did not intend to fire the head of the central bank, as he has frequently suggested he would. U.S. 10-year Treasury yields were steady at 4.41% while two-year yields, which track monetary policy bets, were also flat at 3.925%. The Bank of Japan has its own policy announcement on Thursday, and Prime Minister Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party holds a meeting on the same day. That's after the European Central Bank held rates steady on Thursday and was viewed by traders as likely to pause further cuts until the end of the year. The euro was steady against the dollar on Friday at $1.178 , although German government debt sold off, with the yield on benchmark 10-year Bunds up 4 basis points (bps) at 2.726%. Elsewhere in markets, gold eased 0.8% to around $3,339 an ounce. Brent crude futures gained 0.4% to $69.65 a barrel. (Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Sam Holmes and Saad Sayeed)
