With the exception of Tuesday’s moderate climb, UK markets suffered steady falls throughout the week. Signals from Fed chairman Ben Bernanke that he sees scope for further stimulus to the US economy provided a last minute boost on Friday afternoon, but this merely left the FTSE 100 index flat over the final trading session of the week.
See what was hot and what was not on the FTSE today here.
By close of business Friday, the weekly drop on the UK blue-chip index amounted to 1.3%, while mid-caps traded on the FTSE 250 index had shed 1.45% over the week. These recent falls belie an unusually strong August month. The FTSE 100 is up 2.8% so far this month and last week hit highs not seen since that start of April.
Still, the mood remains very much one of ‘wait and see’, with hopes of further monetary stimulus continuing to underpin performances. As holiday-makers return to their trading posts in September, there will be much to drive markets higher—or lower—amid ramped-up volumes.
“Looking to the September calendar, there are lots of potentially market moving events to look forward to. Troika back in Greece to check the books, eurozone finance ministers meeting, Draghi press conference, EU bank regulator announcement, Germany deciding on legality of new bailout fund and fiscal pact and a G20 summit,” commented Michael van Dulken, head of Research at Accendo Markets, on Friday.
“There appear to be catalysts a plenty for the FTSE 100 to see either a correction back below June-July rising support or a revival of its three-month rally towards 2012 highs,” van Dulken added.
On Thursday, earnings announcements led to a mixed FTSE close. Mid-week, miners dragged the FTSE lower on Wednesday. This was partly due to a reversal of sentiment following mining sector strength on Tuesday, which in turn was the flip side of Monday’s mining sector weakness. With the miners hogging the limelight this week, we took the opportunity to review our analysts’ valuations for London-listed miners and ask: “Are FTSE Mining Companies Cheap Right Now?”