Strong gains for London markets as consumer firms push higher

The London markets rebounded firmly as strong sessions by consumer and industrial firms helped the FTSE march higher.

London’s top index finished the week in positive territory despite periods of weak sentiment as concerns over the impending economic slowdown and potential recession continued to linger.

The FTSE 100 ended the day up 188.36 points, or 2.68%, at 7,208.81.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: “After a pretty poor couple of days, European markets have seen a decent rebound today, with the FTSE 100 looking set to post its first positive week since after three weeks of declines.

“The Dax also looks set to reverse a series of three weekly declines.

“This week’s recovery off the lows has been helped in some part by a sharp slide in bond yields, which has offered some respite to more defensive areas of the market, although it has lagged behind the likes of the Cac 40 and FTSE 100 today.”

The German Dax increased by 1.71% by the end of the session, while the French Cac fell 3.44%.

Across the Atlantic, Wall Street rose after the final Michigan University inflation expectations survey gave up the gains that prompted the Fed to pivot towards its sharp rate rise.

Sterling shrugged off another record low for consumer confidence, as well as a disappointing set of retail sales numbers to stay fairly stable. The pound was up 0.05% against the dollar at 1.229 and was down 0.08% against the euro at 1.164.

The price of oil moved higher as concerns that interest rate rises could impact energy demand waned among City traders. Brent crude increased by 3.1% to 113.41 US dollars per barrel when the London markets closed.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Hikma, up 90.5p at 1,637p, Ashtead Group, up 192p at 3,551p, Croda, up 338p at 6,304p, Spirax-sarco, up 514p at 9,700p, and Dechra Pharma, up 180p at 3,428p.

The only four fallers of the day were Centrica, down 1.7p at 81.16p, Rollsroyce, down 0.91p at 80.94p, Aveva Group, down 11p at 2,463p, and Endeavour Mining, down 4p at 1,743p.

European markets have seen a decent rebound