March may have proved a little more volatile than recent months, however, the UK’s UK 100 is still expected to move into April 1.5% to the good. A very respectable performance given last week we were almost back to breakeven, having sold off from fresh record highs the week prior. This month has thus offered…
31 Mar Marketwatch “Market weakness [on Friday] may be explained by an element of risk-off into the week-, month- and quarter-end following one of the best starts to the year since 2013. This despite political risk aplenty, the most recent coming from South Africa,” said analysts at Accendo Markets in a note. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/UK Index -100-slides-but-heads-for-4th-straight-quarterly-gain-2017-03-31…
Shares in Plumbing and Building merchant Wolseley (WOS) are top of the UK 100 this morning after consensus-beating H1 results, a 10% dividend hike and strategic Nordic exit to focus on the key US market. Like-for like/organic group sales +3.2% is solid, helped by a Q2 acceleration in both the US and UK. Group revenues…
Macro observations With 9 months now passed since the UK’s referendum on EU membership, this week we will finally see the UK government officially notify the EU of its wish to leave the bloc, culminating in the triggering of Article 50 and the point of no return. While the announcement in itself is likely to…
This morning sees the UK 100 blue-chips deliver a standard response to Trump trade concerns; losses for risk-asset names like Miners (GLEN, RIO, BHP), Oil (RDS, BP) and Banks (LLOY, HSBC, BARC) easily outweighing gains for the safe haven precious metals miners (FRES, RRS). The index’s test of key support going back not just to…
This week’s UK 100 winner is retailer Next (NXT), its shares putting on a whopping 6.8% to deliver a bullish break from a 2-month sideways channel (£38-£40). This helped them outperform blue-chip peers by more than 3% in a week in which the index itself fell over 1% from record highs. What has investors excited…