LONDON MARKETS: FTSE 100 Rises, On Track To Break Weekly Losing Streak

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

Stocks in London follow Wall Street higher

U.K. stocks on Friday advanced, following U.S. stocks in their recovery effort and putting London's blue-chip market on course to break a string of weekly losses.

The gains arrived ahead of the U.K. government's report on retail sales in January.

How markets are performing

The FTSE 100 was up 0.6% to 7,276.34. All sectors rose, topped by the telecom and utility groups. On Thursday, the benchmark closed up 0.3%, for a third straight winning session.

The pound bought $1.4129, up from $1.4100 late Thursday in New York.

Check out:Here's why the U.S. dollar isn't getting much love (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-why-the-us-dollar-is-nobodys-valentine-2018-02-14)

The yield on the 10-year gilt was down 1 basis points to 1.63%, according to Tradeweb.

What's moving markets

U.K. and broader European markets appeared to be taking their cue from Wall Street. U.S. stocks on Thursday overcame intraday losses to finish higher for a fifth straight session (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-on-pace-for-5th-win-in-a-row-helped-by-ciscos-earnings-driven-jump-2018-02-15), leaving the Dow Jones Industrial Average back above 25,000.

After the recent meltdown in global equities, the FTSE 100, like the Dow and the S&P , is set for weekly gains. The FTSE 100 is looking at a rise of 2.6%, and that would be its first weekly advance after four weeks in the red.

The recent global selloff in equities is seen as prompted partly by a rise in U.S. bond yields amid signs of an uptick in inflation. But after the release this week of stronger-than-expected U.S. inflation data (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cpi-surges-05-in-january-but-yearly-rate-of-inflation-unchanged-2018-02-14), investors have been scooping up beaten-down stocks.

Read:This market selloff was overdue, but now it looks overdone, strategists say (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-market-selloff-was-overdue-but-now-it-looks-overdone-strategists-say-2018-02-10)

What strategists are saying

"Where Wall Street goes, other markets follow, and this bounce back from last week's lows is no different. Traders are quickly getting used to higher bond yields, higher inflation and another round of hikes in global interest rates that will follow, so much so that U.S. stocks are recovering twice as fast as in London," said Lee Wild, head of equity strategy at Interactive Investor.

"Markets will remain volatile, for sure, but we've just found out that big investors can't stay out of this market for long, and demand for equities typically picks up in the weeks before tax year-end," Wild said in a note.

Economic data

A report on U.K. retail sales in January is due at 9:30 a.m London time, or 4:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Analysts are expecting a reading of 2.4% year-on-year and 0.4% month-on-month, according to a FactSet consensus survey.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 16, 2018 04:07 ET (09:07 GMT)

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