Booming Amazon bumps Walgreens off Dow Jones
AMAZON has joined America’s oldest stock market index in the first reshuffle since the pandemic.
The online retail giant entered the Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday having seen its shares rise 15pc so far this year, taking gains this decade to 90pc. But they barely shifted yesterday, inching down 0.03pc.
The Dow is home to 30 huge American corporate giants including Nike, Walmart, Coca-Cola and IBM. Making way for Amazon is Walgreens Boots Alliance.
Amazon is the third of the socalled Magnificent Seven tech stocks to join the index, with Microsoft entering in 1999 while Apple has been included for almost a decade.
The latest reshuffle comes as optimism over artificial intelligence has pushed Wall Street to fresh record highs. Yesterday, the Dow Jones edged up 0.01pc, the S&P 500 inched down 0.06pc and the Nasdaq rose 0.2pc.
In London, the FTSE 100 fell 0.3pc, or 21.98 points, to 7684.3 and the FTSE 250 slid 0.3pc, or 52.64 points, to 19126.92. Standard Chartered extended its gains as analysts at Morgan Stanley, Berenberg and JP Morgan upgraded the lender’s stock.
It came after the bank on Friday reported a 19pc increase in profits to £4bn, hiked its dividend, and announced a £790m share buyback, as well as a three-year plan to cut costs by £1.2bn. Shares rose 0.2pc, or 1.4p, to 636.4p.
Another riser was engineer RollsRoyce, reaching its highest level since August 2018, after its impressive results last week. Shares grew 2.3pc, or 8.1p, to 361.2p.
Sentiment towards Ocado soured after analysts at investment bank Peel Hunt downgraded the online supermarket and warned it had focused on consumer tech and retail for too long. Shares sank 7pc, or 36.9p, to 491.5p.
Miners also came under pressure, with Anglo American down 3.3pc, or 59.4p, to 1726.6p, Rio Tinto falling 2.5pc, or 130p, to 5067p and Glencore sliding 1.8pc, or 6.85p, to 368.95p.
A drug made by AstraZeneca has been approved by the EU as an additional treatment to ones already being used to treat a severe blood disorder.
Shares in the pharma giant added 0.3pc, or 34p, to 10254p.
Birmingham Bullring owner Hammerson has sold its Union Square shopping centre in Aberdeen for £111m.
The sale to a group linked to the Lone Star Real Estate is 8pc below Union’s £121m price tag at the end of December.
As a result of the deal, Hammerson has completed the £500m programme it started in early 2022 to sell assets it no longer considers essential. Shares, however, inched down 0.3pc, or 0.08p, to 25.62p.
Four fresh faces will be joining the board of Frasers Group.
The appointments made by Mike Ashley’s fashion empire, which owns Sports Direct, Jack Wills and Flannels, include Sir Jon Thompson, the former chief executive of watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council. But the shares slipped 0.3pc, or 2.5p, to 831.5p.
Disinfectant firm Tristel reported a record-breaking six months. The group, whose chlorine dioxide chemistry is bought by hospitals to clean medical devices, reported that revenues rose by a fifth to £20.9m in the first half to the end of December while profits jumped 44pc to £3.4m.
And its surface disinfection system, which provides a greener alternative to anti-bacterial wet wipes, has been approved by UK and EU regulators. Shares gained 4.4pc, or 20p, to 470p.
But IT service provider Made Tech headed in the other direction after clients held back on spending amid continuing economic uncertainty. Shares dropped 0.6pc, or 0.05p, to 8.7p.