UK’s main stock indexes climbed on Monday after a record-setting rally on Wall Street in the previous session, which helped outweigh concerns about a slowing British economy and sticky inflation.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 climbed 0.4% by 0813 GMT, while the domestically-focussed FTSE 250 edged up 0.6%.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 hit an all-time high on Friday, fuelled by optimism around artificial intelligence (AI), driving technology stocks higher across the globe.

Both the UK indexes marked their third consecutive weekly decline on Friday, after a stronger-than-expected inflation reading and slump in December retail sales raised concerns about a potential recession and complicated the outlook for interest rates.

FTSE struggles to shake off gloom, Watches of Switzerland sinks

Compass Group edged down after the catering firm said it had agreed to buy rival CH&CO for an initial enterprise value of 475 million pounds ($603.16 million).

Martin Sorrell’s digital advertising group S4 Capital climbed 8.3%, after the company issued fourth-quarter trading update that was in-line with the its previous forecast.

Comments

200 characters