Monday saw gains in London's major equity indexes for a second straight week, supported by the U.S. jobs data, which helped allay concerns about a downturn in the world's largest economy.
FTSE 100 Movers
The FTSE 100 kicked off the week with a positive sentiment, increasing the index price by 0.5%. Meanwhile, the mid-cap FTSE 250 followed suit, gaining almost 0.3% in a day. Both indexes were up from the commodity-linked shares, while the ease of US recession fear and Middle East conflict was a confluence factor.
The week saw significant volatility on global markets as investors unwound yen carry transactions due to worries of a U.S. recession after the release of July jobs data and a spike in the yen's value following the Bank of Japan's interest rate hike on July 31.
After Bellway (LON: BWY), along with competitors, provided an optimistic assessment of the industry's adhering to the Bank of England's velocity reduction and the newly elected Labor government's suggested planning modifications, homebuilders were among the top buyers in London, rising 1.5%.
Among FTSE 100 gainers, British Communication Company (BT) faced an 8.43% increase after having a deal with Bharti Enterprise.
Data To Look At
Investors will be closely watching the consumer price inflation reports from the US and the UK and the UK's second-quarter GDP numbers, making next week an important one.
On Tuesday, investors will see the labor data for the UK, where the current expectation is a 4.5% increase, up from 4.4% in the previous month. Also, the Claimant count could come significantly lower at 14.5K, down from 32.2K, which could be a key price driver for the UK stocks.
In the US, the inflation data will show how the US economy is heading, where no change is expected in the monthly CPI, which is currently at 3.0%.
