Both sides of Atlantic see market boost

Markets pushed higher as traders waited for the US and China to sign a first-stage trade deal to bring their long-running trade war to an end.

The US indexes Dow Jones and S&P 500 hit record highs – while the global cheer also helped push up London’s FTSE 100 by 0.27 per cent, or 20.45 points, to 7,642.8. The FTSE 250, meanwhile, lost 0.2 per cent to 21,713.11.

US president Donald Trump signed the phase one trade deal at the White House yesterday morning US time. “As you know, we just broke the 29,000 mark on the Dow, markets are up substantially today,” Trump said in a speech.

The two countries first hashed out the deal in December.

It aims to end a spiral of retributive tariffs that the two countries put on their imports and Trump promised to travel to China for phase two negotiations “at a later date”. Meanwhile, energy utility firms performed well on the FTSE 100, with National Grid, SSE and Centrica all up by nearly 2 per cent.

Sterling was up against the dollar, by 0.09 per cent to $1.3031. Against the euro, the currency fell 0.19 per cent to €1.1679.

In company news, housebuilder Persimmon saw the number of homes it completed fall by 4 per cent in the last year, as the company attempts to improve the quality of its building work following a scathing report into its work practices. Shares rose 0.39 per cent to 2,807p.

Fellow house-builder Vistry – formerly known as Bovis Homes – said 2019 profits are expected to be at record levels, despite bosses warning that Brexit and the general election have hit house prices. Shares fell 2.91 per cent to 1,303p.