FTSE 100 in the red ahead of key week of corporate results
The FTSE 100 started the week in the red this morning as energy and banking stocks dragged down the index.
London’s premier market was down 0.4 per cent after two hours of trading, with the FTSE 250 faring little better at 0.2 per cent down.
The slide comes ahead of a week stuffed with corporate earnings updates from some of the bourse’s biggest firms, as well as the Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting.
The top five fallers were all banks, with HSBC and Standard Chartered heading the list, dropping 1.9 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively.
It comes as a number of lenders, including Barclays and Natwest, prepare to report their half year results, with traders hoping their performance can match that of their American counterparts.
Miners Antofagasta, Rio Tinto and Anglo American, meanwhile, were among the top gainers on strong base metal prices.
The recent rise in Covid case numbers has also slowed markets in recent weeks, as CMC Markets Michael Hewson explains:
“As investors balance up the pincer like concerns of rising inflation and slowing growth, the benefit of the doubt appears to be leaning towards a slowed recovery, rather than one that has stopped in its tracks.
“The upside is that central banks are unlikely to be in a rush to look at imminently curtailing their bond-buying or asset purchase programs, let alone raising interest rate.”