Will the markets be sufficiently reassured by the government’s latest dramatic u-turn? The pound has picked up a little, but analysts are apparently expecting another week of uncertainty for the FTSE 350.
Calmer week?
The FTSE 100 gained 9 points Friday to finish on 6,859 points. Overall, that was a 1.9% loss on the week, which is better than things were looking on Wednesday after six straight days of losses.
Ocado was the biggest winner on Friday with a 4.8% gain, but only after a lengthy losing trend.
The FTSE 350 put on 7 points the same day to end at 3,776 points, down a similar 1.9% over the week. Wizz Air led the mid-cap FTSE 250 index on Friday with an 8.4% increase. International Distributions Services (previously known as Royal Mail Group) showed the biggest fall, of 10.5%.
US market falls
US markets dropped on Friday after inflation figures came in higher than expected. The S&P 500 fell 87 points (2.4%) on the day to finish the week at 3,583 points.
The Nasdaq high-tech index lost a whopping 328 points (3%) to dip as low as 10,321 points. That’s only 233 points above its 52-week low.
Week ahead
There’s little company news coming our way Monday, except for a trading update from Hargreaves Lansdown. But we’ll have some key updates during the week.
Full-year results from housebuilder Bellway are due Tuesday. The figures will only take us up to the company’s year-end in July. But hopefully we’ll also get some idea of how the market has been going since then.
We’ll have the latest from the mining sector too, with trading updates from Rio Tinto on Tuesday, followed by Antofagasta and BHP Group on Wednesday. Centamin reports on its third quarter on Thursday.
Oil and gold
Oil has remained reasonably steady, with the price of a barrel of Brent Crude hanging around the $92.50 level.
The gold price, meanwhile, has fallen back from recent highs and now stands at $1,655 per ounce. That’s some way back from its year high of $2,113.
Brokers
Brokers remain largely neutral on mining stocks, but they mostly have positive price targets for them. JP Morgan Cazenove, for example, has set a target of 5,450p on Rio Tinto, currently priced at 4,752p.
Deutsche Bank has slashed its target price for Boohoo Group from a previous 140p to just 36p. The shares currently sell for 38.7p
