FTSE 100 Index Finds Positive Territory Despite Hong Kong Shares Falling
Key Highlights :
The FTSE 100 index found positive territory today despite Hong Kong shares falling after Alibaba sales came in below expectations. Traders on both sides of the Atlantic have been lifted by signs that the US will avoid a debt default, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed the week near to a three-decade high as the weak yen continues to benefit overseas-earning. London’s upbeat mood was reflected in the latest update from FTSE 100-listed conglomerate, which raised its full-year revenues guidance for the third time this year.
As today’s trading session draws to a close, the FTSE 100 finished the weak almost perfectly flat, closing today at 7756.87. The index of London blue-chips was close to 7800 for much of the day, but fell late on amid comments from US central bankers about the Federal Reserve’s interest rate strategy and an apparent step back in the country’s debt ceiling talks. BT was the biggest riser while JD Sports was the biggest faller.
Tesco chair John Allan will step down after the company’s AGM next month, the supermarket giant revealed today, after he was accused of inappropriate behaviour last week. He had been head of Tesco’s board since 2015. Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman will leave the post within the next year, he revealed today. At the banking giant’s annual general meeting, Gorman said: “It is the board’s and my expectation that it will occur at some point in the next 12 months”, though he added that this could change in the event of “a major change in the external environment”. He will initially become executive chairman when his time as CEO is over.
Nearly two in three workers in the UK think the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) will take away more jobs that it will create, but many fewer are worried about their own prospects, a new study has suggested. In a poll taken earlier this month before BT said it might lose around 10,000 workers to AI by the end of the decade, 62% of working Britons said that robotics and AI would take over more jobs than they create.
The FTSE 100 climbed higher in the late morning and early afternoon, with the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust the biggest riser of the day. The party supplier business founded by the Princess of Wales’s parents has been sold in a rescue deal after falling into administration. Party Pieces Holdings, which was founded by Carole and Michael Middleton in 1987, has been sold to entrepreneur James Sinclair in a pre-pack administration deal. The Middletons hired insolvency specialists from Interpath Advisory earlier on Thursday.
Peers have supported moves to give employees the right to request flexible working from their first day in a job. The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill is a “very welcome starting point and not an end point” for reforming working conditions, according to Labour. The measures are supported by the Government and received an unopposed second reading in the House of Lords. Under the current rules, a person who has 26 weeks of continuous service with their employer can request a change to their working hours, times or location.
Earlier this month, the World Health Organisation declared the Covid-19 public health emergency over. But while the darkest days of the pandemic may be officially behind us, its enduring impact means that our city faces a once-in-a-generation inflection point if it’s to remain successful and meet the changing needs of Londoners.
A major survey of tourists carried out before the Treasury decided to scrap VAT-free shopping found that the scheme was hugely popular with foreign visitors and that much of the money they saved was spent in the UK. The findings from the confidential research conducted for HMRC call into question the Government’s argument that scrapping the “tourist tax” would cost billions and make little difference to the number of people holidaying in London and the UK.
The FTSE 100 index found positive territory today despite Hong Kong shares falling after Alibaba sales came in below expectations. This comes as traders on both sides of the Atlantic have been lifted by signs that the US will avoid a debt default, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed the week near to a three-decade high as the weak yen continues to benefit overseas-earning. London’s upbeat mood was reflected in the latest update from FTSE 100-listed conglomerate, which raised its full-year revenues guidance for the third time this year.
The FTSE 100 finished the weak almost perfectly flat, closing today at 7756.87. The index of London blue-chips was close to 7800 for much of the day, but fell late on amid comments from US central bankers about the Federal Reserve’s interest rate strategy and an apparent step back in the country’s debt ceiling talks. BT was the biggest riser while JD Sports was the biggest faller.
Tesco chair John Allan will step down after the company’s AGM next month, the supermarket giant revealed today, after he was accused of inappropriate behaviour last week. Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman will leave the post within the next year, he revealed today. At the banking giant’s annual general meeting, Gorman said: “It is the board’s and my expectation that it will occur at some point in the next 12 months”, though he added that this could change in the event of “a major change in the external environment”.
Nearly two in three workers in the UK think the emergence
