S&P500 AND FTSE100 Updates

FTSE100
FTSE100 peaked at day’s high on Friday at 7,121.88 being 91.22 points or 1.3% higher. This rise was heavily aided by the rise of export companies due to the weakening of the pound. However, the index could not close much higher because of the concern around the spike of Covid-19 cases in previous trading sessions.

​The markets opened on Monday expressing the disappointment after England’s defeat to Italy in the penalties of the Euro 2020 Final. The spread betting firms expected FTSE100 to reduce by 18 points after the open at 7,103.88. The index fell by 0.7% because of heavyweight energy stocks and precious metal miner stocks on lower commodity prices. However, motor insurers at Admiral helped cut some of these losses as they rose by 3.9% to the top of the index. Real estate and healthcare stocks further pushed the FTSE higher including the biggest boost given by AstraZeneca’s stocks after its price target was increased by Jefferies.

Despite the apprehensions around the rise in Delta variant cases bounding the blue-chip index to a 7,100 level, the health minister Sajid Javid’s announcement to lift all Covid regulations on July 19th has assisted several travel and high street stocks. FTSE100 finally closed 0.05% in the green at 7,125.42 on Monday.


S&P500
S&P500 staged a strong rebound and ended at a record high on Friday, after its worst daily drop since June 18th due to the concerns about the economic recovery during rising cases of the Delta variant and the lowest yields of the 10-year and 30-year Treasuries since February. The index closed 1.1% or 48.73 points higher at 4,369.55, powered by a 2.8% increase in financials XLF and a 2% increase in materials XLB. It also secured a third straight week of increase to end Friday with a 0.4% weekly gain. The 10-year Treasury yield increased by 6 basis points to 1.35% while the 30-year Treasury rose by 7 basis points to 1.98%. President Joe Biden’s executive order to limit corporate dominance and stimulate competition accounted for this rise in stock price.

According to FactSet analysts, S&P500 companies will supposedly see an increase in earnings by 63.6% in the second quarter from a year before, this growth would be the largest 12-month climb since the fourth quarter of 2009. Furthermore, the U.S. key inflation data for June is set to be released later this week. Finally, Friday afternoon saw a streak of panic in the final trading minutes buying as investors headed into the weekend.

Written by: Sanjana Panicker