- FTSE 100 up 0.5% to 7,103
- Gold up 1.91% to $1,201.93/oz
- £/$ – 1.5238
The FTSE 100 climbed further yesterday, closing up 0.5% at a new high of 7,103.
Banks Standard Chartered and HSBC were the day’s highest climbers, up 4.3% and 3.1% respectively.
In European markets, the Paris CAC 40 rose 1.3% to 5,268, and the German Xetra Dax gained 1.9% to 12,039.
In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2% to 18,037, the S&P 500 slipped 0.4% to 2,108, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.6% lower at 5,060.
Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.4% to 20,058, and the broader Topix index gained 0.5% to 1,627. And in China, the Shanghai Composite fell 1.1% to 4,476, and the CSI 300 was 1.3% lower at 4,741.
Brent spot was trading at $64.10 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $56.28. Spot gold was trading at $1,202 an ounce, silver was at $16.36, and platinum was at $1,141.
In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.5241 and against the euro at 1.4006. The dollar was trading at 0.9189 against the euro and 119.02 against the Japanese yen.
And today, BP announced a poor set of results, as the slump in the oil price bit into profits. First-quarter replacement-cost profits fell by 39% to $2.1bn. That was ahead of analysts’ expectations of $1.2bn, however.