Misfortunes of the pound give a lift to the blue chips

THE FTSE 100 led a forward charge of global stocks as the UK’s private companies felt the pinch in a tough November.

The blue chip index rose 88.26 points, or 1.22 per cent, to 7,326.81, to finish Friday on a week high.

The engines were fired up under Britain’s biggest stocks after the pound crashed. Sterling was pushed lower by new November figures showing the private sector contracted at its fastest rate since July 2016, the month after the Brexit referendum.

One pound bought 1.2828 dollars by the end of the day, a 0.6 per cent decrease. Meanwhile, against the euro, the currency fell 0.34 per cent to 1.1631.

The FTSE 100 is full of companies that depend heavily on exports. A fall in the value of the pound pushes down the price that foreign companies have to pay for FTSE 100 goods and services, therefore boosting the index.

But the index’s rise was not unique. The Dow Jones was trading up 0.27 per cent to 27,841.89, while Germany’s Dax rose 0.2 per cent, and the Cac index of Paris’s biggest companies also closed up 0.2 per cent.

The news from US President Donald Trump that a trade deal with China is potentially very close put upward pressure on global stocks.

In company news, high street lender TSB was forced to apologise after some customers were left without wages in their accounts on Friday, following delays to overnight payments. The bank said a “small number” of customers failed to receive payments, and it was forced to offer emergency cash to those affected.

Gambling software business Playtech issued a profit warning after its financial division performed “well below” expectations.

Rightmove appointed Andrew Fisher, the former boss of Appleowned app Shazam, as its next chairman.

Nationwide Building Society revealed a 40 per cent plunge in half-year profits, after taking a hit from payment protection insurance and ramping up investment despite tough market conditions.

Marks & Spencer said former menswear director Richard Price will return to the business after an eight-year hiatus, to head its embattled clothing and home arm.

Oil standard Brent crude fell around 1 per cent to 63.30 dollars per barrel.

The owner of Premier Inn has pledged to remove all crackers with plastic toys from its sites, cutting half a million pieces of plastic each year. Whitbread pledged to by 2025 eliminate all single-use plastics that are not necessary for hygiene or would have knock on effects creating more waste. Managing director Simon Ewins said Premier Inn would focus on its supply chain. “In many ways what we’re looking at now with our 2025 commitment is the less visible, less sexy stuff - the hard yards that collectively can make a huge difference,” he said.

The South African company locked in a hostile bidding war for Just Eat boosted profits by 9 per cent in the first six months of the financial year. Naspers made its fortune after becoming an early investor in Chinese internet giant Tencent.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were JD Sports, up 29p to 787.80p, Centrica, up 2.98p to 82.30p, Glencore, up 7.3p to 246.90p, Vodafone, up 4.54p to 156.58p, and Carnival, up 88p to 3,182.00p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Fresnillo, down 37.6p to 561.00p, Johnson Matthey, down 143p to 2,846.00p and Ocado, down 281/2p to 1,1261/2p.