FTSE 100 claws back ground in bruising week

London’s top 100 companies saw earlier gains pared back as the market eked out sluggish growth at the end of what proved to be the third worst week in the index’s history.

The FTSE 100 closed the day up 128.63 to 5,366.11, a 2.5% rise on the day.

Traders may be able to take heart from the index’s growth a day after it lost nearly 11% of its value in a bruising session.

However, there will be questions raised after the FTSE handed back a rise of almost 8.8% that it had reached at around midday yesterday.

“Losing ground towards the end of the trading day has been common recently, and it speaks to a nervousness in the markets,” said David Madden, an analyst at CMC Markets.

It caps off an awful week for London’s top firms, as £275bn was wiped off their combined value. It leaves the index down 1,096.44 points, or 16.97%, since the close last Friday, notching up a new nearly 12-year low.

It is also the FTSE 100’s third worst week since it was launched at the start of 1984.

Germany’s Dax gained 0.8%, while France’s Cac notched up a 1.8% win.

The pound bought 1.2349 dollars by the end of play, a 1.8% drop. Against the euro it fell 1.1% to 1.1134.

The top winners on the FTSE 100 were Evraz, up 25.4p to 228.8p, BHP, up 114.2p to 1,054p, Rio Tinto, up 306p to 3,274p, Ocado, up 106p to 1,183p, and Hargreaves Lansdown, up 109.5p to 1,320.5p. The biggest losers were Carnival, down 128p to 1,161p, Tui, down 25.2p to 360p, Taylor Wimpey, down 8.1p to 148.55p, Barratt Developments, down 28p to 526.6p, and JD Sports, down 26p to 512.6p.