Market overview: FTSE 100 pares gains to close up 0.5%
1630: Close London's FTSE 100 finished the session up 36.46 points, or 0.54%, at 6,809.50, trimming earlier gains after a weak start on Wall Street following worse-than-expected ADP payrolls and ISM manufacturing reports. "From manufacturing this morning, the focus has shifted to employment, particularly the all-important US jobs situation, with the picture looking a lot less optimistic as we head towards the Friday jobs report," said analyst Chris Beauchamp from IG. Brent crude futures for May delivery were up 2.7% at $56.62 a barrel in afternoon trade as talks over Iran's nuclear programme continued.
ASOS
433.60p
16:35 07/10/24
Banks
4,464.99
16:34 07/10/24
Barclays
229.65p
17:15 07/10/24
FirstGroup
138.90p
16:34 07/10/24
FTSE 100
8,303.62
16:44 07/10/24
FTSE 250
20,853.21
16:50 07/10/24
FTSE 350
4,579.77
16:50 07/10/24
FTSE AIM 100
3,589.71
16:59 07/10/24
FTSE AIM 50
4,033.59
16:59 07/10/24
FTSE AIM All-Share
738.61
16:59 07/10/24
FTSE All-Share
4,536.43
16:59 07/10/24
General Retailers
4,210.23
16:34 07/10/24
Lloyds Banking Group
59.16p
16:40 07/10/24
Software & Computer Services
2,452.80
16:34 07/10/24
Travel & Leisure
7,869.85
16:34 07/10/24
Watchstone Group
52.10p
08:36 06/07/21
1540: US stock markets have opened on the back foot after a worse-than-anticipated labour and manufacturing data. ADP payrolls increased by just 189k in March compared with 212k the month before (forecast: 225k), while the ISM manufacturing index fell from 52.9 to 51.5 in March, below the 52.5 forecast. The Dow is down 0.8%, the Nasdaq has dropped 0.9%, while the S&P is trading 0.6% lower.
1304: Morgan Stanley put Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays in its 'Most Preferred' list out of its European bank coverage, saying the two are its top picks in the UK banking sector. Morgan Stanley rates both banks at 'overweight' but raises price targets for both. It now targets Barclays at 333p from 315p previously and targets Lloyds at 99p from 94p. Barclays shares were up 3% and Lloyds shares rose 2.2%.
1052: Iran's deputy foreign minister Aragchi has reportedly said a deal on the country's nuclear programme will hopefully be reached by tonight.
1048: Jefferies raised its target price on Lloyds from 69p to 88p and improved its recommendation on the stock to 'hold' from 'underperform', but refrained from taking a more positive stance, saying that upgrades to consensus earnings expectations "appear hard to come by".
1000: The Vice-President of BP Russia, Vladimir Drebentsov, has reportedly said that Iranian oil exports could rise by up to 1m barrels per day in the case of a successful conclusion to the country's nuclear negotiations.
0942: Trading in Quindell has been halted ahead of an announcement. Shares down 3.6% to 123p.
0930: The UK manufacturing sector purchasing managers' index for March has printed at 54.4, exactly as expected, and up from a reading of 54 in the month before.
0840: Shares in Shawbrook are 5.2% higher at 305p.
0839: Greek 10-year sovereign bond yields are higher by 21 basis points to 11.66%.
0835: UK stocks started the morning slightly lower, after yesterday’s thrashing, but have since veered into the blue. Asos is grabbing headlines. First half profit was down 10% but even so ahead of analysts’ forecasts. Guidance is in-line. To take note off is the sharp drop seen in the shares last year. First Group is also moving higher on the back of an upgrade out of Panmure Gordon. Chinese manufacturing sector PMIs out overnight came in above expectations, but the details were weak. The Bank of Japan’s Tankan survey of corporate confidence has been described by analysts at Unicredit as “not brilliant”. Eurozone and UK manufacturing PMIs are due out over the next hour. FTSE 100 up 10 to 6,792.04 points.