FTSE 100 rises slightly but fails to hit record high

SHARES in London’s top index ended the day slightly in the green, but looked nowhere close to the all-time highs that some have been hoping for in recent days.

The FTSE 100 closed the day up just 2.35 points, or 0.03%, scoring 7,937.44 by the close of play.

It put the index slightly below its European peers, as Unilever and BT were among the companies weighing on the stock market.

“The FTSE 100 underperformed on Wednesday, while other European and US indices recovered slightly as the US ISM services PMI hit a three-month low and the Eurozone inflation rate unexpectedly slowed,” said Axel Rudolph, senior market analyst at online trading platform IG.

“Fed chair Jerome Powell’s speech later in the day might add some volatility to the mix.”

At the end of the day in Europe, Frankfurt’s Dax index rose 0.50%, while the Cac 40 in Paris had closed up 0.35%.

In New York, a little while after markets had closed in Europe, the S&P 500 had gained 0.34%, while the Dow Jones was 0.15% higher.

On currency markets the pound had gained 0.43% against the dollar at 1.2631 and had dropped 0.12% against the euro at 1.1667.

It was another quiet day for company news in London after the long Easter weekend.

Topps Tiles reported that its sales dropped 11.3% on a like-for-like basis in the second quarter as homeowners cut back their spending.

The business said that “subdued demand” has continued into this year, which has caused “lower footfall” in its shops and warned that first-half profits would be hit.

Shares in the business closed down 2.84%.

Meanwhile, shares in Royal Mail owner International Distributions Services closed up 4.32%.

The delivery company set out a set of new proposals, which if allowed by regulators would cut deliveries of second-class letters to every other weekday.

The proposal, part of a wider package, would save it £300 million a year, IDS said and would lead to up to 1,000 jobs being lost.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Fresnillo, up 18.5p to 524p, Barclays, up 4.42p to 188.54p, Standard Chartered, up 15.2p to 693.8p, Glencore, up 9.9p to 458.3p, and Natwest Group, up 5.6p to 272.7p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were BT, down 5.05p to 104.7p, RS Group, down 22.5p to 688p, Admiral Group, down 84p to 2,694p, Prudential, down 19.6p to 720.4p, and Smiths Group, down 32p to 1,625p.

Gold at close was 2283.302284.30 dollars an ounce compared with 2273.702274.70 dollars previously.

Silver was 2115.84p-2123.77p compared with 2052.91p-2060.86p previously.

Spot silver was fixed at 2119.80p.