Gamblers lead FTSE in slight gain as it lags European peers

Frankfurt’s Dax index rose 0.83% while the Cac 40 in Paris closed up 1.13%.
Share prices rose in the City on Thursday (Victoria Jones/PA)
PA Archive
August Graham18 January 2024
City Spy

Our unmissable weekly email of all the gossip, rumours and covert goings-on inside the Square Mile

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Investors hoping for London’s shares to bounce back from a rout on Wednesday were left disappointed as the index fell behind the wins of European rivals.

The FTSE 100 rose 12.8 points, or 0.17%, to end the day at 7,459.09.

The index’s rise was led by the gambling companies as Flutter soared following its final shareholder update before it lists in New York.

Despite reporting results in line with expectations and slight weakness in the US due to customers winning on NFL games, shares closed up 15.34%.

But the rise in the gambling shares – Entain was up 6.12% – was partly offset elsewhere on the index.

By the end of the day, energy companies Centrica and National Grid were lingering towards the bottom of the FTSE, joined by retailers such as Tesco and B&M.

“We’ve seen a modest stabilisation in European markets after the losses of yesterday, with the FTSE 100 lagging the rest of Europe with modest weakness in utilities and consumer staples acting as a drag on the UK blue-chip index,” said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.

At the close of trading in Europe, Frankfurt’s Dax index rose 0.83% while the Cac 40 in Paris closed up 1.13%.

In New York a little while after markets had closed in Europe, the S&P 500 had gained 0.24% while the Dow Jones was 0.23% lower.

On currency markets, the pound had gained 0.02% against the dollar at 1.2679 and had risen 0.29% against the euro at 1.1682.

London was packed with company news on Thursday, with Royal Mail and Sainsbury’s leading the way.

Shares in the delivery company’s parent International Distributions Services rose 0.60% after it said that Royal Mail had its best Christmas in four years, with parcel revenues up 14.4% and the group said it would meet its guidance for the year.

Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s said that it was going to wind down Sainsbury’s Bank, which has nearly two million customers.

The firm said that it was planning a “phased withdrawal” but did not reveal when it planned to get out of the banking business.

Shares in the company closed down 0.74%.

Elsewhere, Watches of Switzerland saw its shares plunge by 36.2% after saying that it does not expect customer demand to rebound after a tough Christmas period. It slashed revenue growth projections by three quarters.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Flutter Entertainment, up 2,025p to 15,225p, Entain, up 54.8p to 949.6p, Rolls-Royce, up 9.9p to 306.5p, St James’s Place, up 17p to 637.2p, and Intercontinental Hotels Group, up 166p to 7,344p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were B&M European, down 18.2p to 524.8p, Admiral Group, down 60p to 2,501p, Centrica, down 3.2p to 139.7p, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, down 39p to 1,926p, and Smurfit Kappa, down 54p to 2,922p.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in