End-of-day market snapshot
Take a look at all the key market data as trading in London closes.
FTSE 100 closes up 0.8%
The FTSE 100 closed up 0.8% at 7,587 today, despite China reporting deflation this morning.
BP, IHG and Glencore were among the top risers, while Hiscox and Flutter – which both reported results today – led the fallers.
Brokers hope for ‘price war’ as UK’s biggest mortgage lender Halifax latest to cut interest rates
The UK’s biggest mortgage lender Halifax has become the latest to cut its mortgage rates, in yet another sign that prices are declining again after rising to 15-year highs.
Halifax will bring in new lower rates from Friday, following a wave of other lenders including HSBC, TSB and Nationwide lowering rates earlier this week. For HSBC, the price cut had been the second in just two weeks.
The decline in mortgage rates comes as the Bank of England raised its base rate to 5.25%. While the Bank Rate has a large influence on mortgage rates, banks usually set the price of a fixed-rate mortgage based on City expectations of the rate over the length of the fix, rather than setting it based on the rate at a given moment, and trade financial instruments based on those expected future rates to hedge against the risk that they are wrong.
This means that mortgage rates falling even as the Bank Rate rises is not necessarily unusual if rates had previously been expected to rise to exceptionally high levels.
Brits are poorer than Americans because we spend more on worse homes, think tank says
Brits are spending more than Americans for smaller homes and it’s making those in the UK worse off than their peers across the Atlantic, influential think tank the Social Market Foundation claims.
In a new report looking at the difference in wealth between the UK and US, the SMF noted that consumption in the US is around 30% higher than in the UK after cost-of-living differences between the countries are accounted for. Much of this difference is in healthcare and transportation, two areas where the SMF said it was not clear whether America’s greater consumption is actually leading to better outcomes.
However, it was a different story for housing.
“The gap in housing is a more direct reflection of dysfunction in the UK housing market,” the SMF said.
E.On reports rise in UK sales and profit as boss urges action on fossil fuels
Energy giant E.On has reported an eight billion euro (£6.9 billion) increase in its UK sales over the last six months.
The German company said it plans to invest billions across Europe as it revealed a 1% drop in sales there to around 52.4 billion euros (£44.8 billion) over the half year.
But sales in the UK rose at breakneck speed, hitting a little under 21 billion euros (£18.1 billion), up from 12.8 billion (£11 billion) a year earlier, the business said.
Dramatic new roof garden opens at Battersea power station
One of London’s most dramatic roof gardens has opened next to the chimneys of Battersea Power Station.
The 29,000 sq ft gardens are available to residents of three new apartment buildings that have gone up next to the Grade II* former generator as part of a £9 billion regeneration but are not open to the general public.
The new roof gardens at Battersea Power Station
/ Aaron HargreavesThe gardens with 29,000 plants and 55 trees sit on the 16th floor of a Foster + Partners designed block with 232 homes and a 164 room hotel.
They were designed by James Corner of Field Operations, which was also behind the New York High Line linear park.
Union predicts ‘severe disruption’ at Gatwick as August strikes announced
Unite has announced strikes by ground handlers and passenger assistance workers at Gatwick Airport later this month in a row over pay.
The union claims the industrial action will cause “severe disruption”.
The strikes will involve more than 230 workers.
Unite members working for ground handling company Red Handling will walk out for four days from August 18, and a further four days from August 25, which includes the August bank holiday weekend.
Watchdog begins probe into number of customers ‘debanked’ by big banks
The UK’s financial watchdog is set to find out how many customers have been “debanked” by the UK’s largest banks as part of a probe into account closures and freedom of expression.
The move by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) follows the scandal sparked by politician Nigel Farage after he revealed that Coutts decided to shut down his bank account.
It resulted in the Government bringing in new rules to clamp down on unexplained bank closures, and culminated in the resignations of the bosses of Coutts and its owner, NatWest Group.
City Comment: Law firm Kingsley Napley is turning the lights off on Fridays. Will it catch on?
First came “dress down Friday” when suits and brogues were replaced by chinos and loafers in a nod to the start of the weekend.
Now, after the pandemic, are we in the era of “lights-out Friday” when swathes of offices in the City will simply go dark?
Renowned City law firm Kingsley Napley, which occupies six floors at its office on Bonhill Street, has decided it will flick the light switches to “off” in much of its space on Fridays.
According to the website Legal Cheek the firm will simply shut down two-and-a-half floors on the fifth working day of the week. The policy will result in annual savings of around £100,000 in energy, cleaning, and maintenance costs, as well as ticking an ESG carbon footprint box.
Bellway shares slip as builder reveals hit from UK housing slowdown
Bellway today became the latest major builder to show how the UK housing slowdown and loss of Help to Buy is hurting, revealing a reservation levels slump and cautioning legal completions are set to decrease “materially” this year.
The FTSE 250 company, one of Britain’s largest housebuilders, said weekly reservation rates tumbled 28.4% in the year to July 31.
It added that the value of its forward order book stood at a lower, “yet still sizeable” £1.2 billion at the year end, down from £2.1 billion 12 months earlier.
Like rivals it has seen soaring mortgage rates pile pressure on would-be buyers already grappling with the cost of living crisis. In addition the Help to Buy scheme ending has also hit the industry.
The shares slipped 16p, or 0.72%, to 2200p.
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