Markets: poor start to the year for the FTSE 100

• FTSE 100 down 0.3% to 6,547
• Gold up 0.61% to $1,189.23/oz
• £/$ - 1.5328

The FTSE 100 started the year on a downbeat note on Friday, slipping 0.3% to close at 6,547.

Property companies were among the worst performers. Barratt lost 2.2% and Taylor Wimpey fell 2.1%, while British Land was 1.9% lower. Greek drinks bottler Coca Cola HBC was the day's biggest faller, down 3.3%.

In European markets, the Paris CAC 40 fell 20 points to 4,252, and the German Xetra Dax lost 41 points to 9,764.

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In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1% to 17,832, the S&P 500 slipped one point to 2,058, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.2% to 4,726.

Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.2% to 17,408, and the broader Topix index fell 0.5% to 1,401. And in China, the Shanghai Composite rose 3.6% to 3,350, and the CSI 300 was 3.1% higher at 3,641.

Brent spot was trading at $55.73 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $51.96. Spot gold was trading at $1,195 an ounce, silver was at $16.05 and platinum was at $1,208.

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.5309 and against the euro at 1.2799. The dollar was trading at 0.8360 against the euro and 120.34 against the Japanese yen.

And in the UK, retail bellwether John Lewis reported a 4.8% increase in like-for like sales over Christmas, boosted by a big rise in click and collect' shopping. Online sales rose by 19%, but in-store sales fell by 1%.

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