DAVID MYRDDIN-EVANS
UK equities had a positive start to the week as the Brexit negotiations got under way. The FTSE 100 closed up by 0.81% and the domestically-focused FTSE 250 was up 0.29%.
In corporate news, security firm G4S rose by 4.58% after making its way back into the FTSE 100 after a series of high-profile failures led to its demotion to the FTSE 250 index in December 2015.
Marks & Spender and Sainsbury both bounced back after falling last week amid news of Amazon’s bid to buy Whole Foods Market.
In early trading on Tuesday stocks were flat.
The FTSE 100 fell 0.8% overall last week amid political uncertainty and concerns about consumer spending.
It was the blue-chip index’s worst weekly performance for two months.
On Friday, supermarkets were the biggest fallers as Amazon’s bid for Whole Foods raised the prospect of a price war in food retailing. Sainsbury’s was down 3.8%, while Tesco dropped 4.9% even after reporting improved quarterly sales growth.
Weak official data for retail sales saw Next plunge 6.1% on Thursday. Other retailers were also down – Marks and Spencer dived 4.7% while Kingfisher was off 2.8%.
Amid fears of economic slowdown, the FTSE 250 index lost 2.1%, its worst day in a year. The FTSE 100 was off 0.7%.
British Airways owner IAG was also down 3.4% after confirming it faces an £80m bill for its recent IT systems failure.
The blue-chip index lost another 0.4% on Wednesday on the back of falls for commodity stocks.
And GKN was down 1.3% due to fears for US car demand.
Last Tuesday, Centrica fell 1.8% on fears of possible energy price caps, while BAE Systems was down 1.1%. The FTSE 100 was off 0.2%.