FTSE 100 slips back from post-election high

FTSE 100 down 0.2% to 7,029.85
Gold down 0.37% to $1,183.98/oz
£/$ - 1.5586

Royal Mail was the day's highest climber, up 3.9% after rival delivery firm Whistl said it would stop delivering in London. Other top performers included housebuilder Taylor Wimpey, which added 2.7%, and private equity firm 3i, which was 2.6% higher.

In Europe's markets yesterday, the Paris CAC 40 fell 1.2% to 5,027, and the German Xetra Dax slipped 0.3% to 11,673.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 each lost 0.5% to 18,105 and 2,105 respectively, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.2% lower at 4,993.

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Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose four points to 19,624, and the broader Topix index added 0.3% to 1,602. And in China, the Shanghai Composite gained 1.6% to 4,401, and the CSI 300 rose 1.2% to 4,748.

Brent spot was trading at $65.05 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $59.49. Spot gold was trading at $1,185 an ounce, silver was at $16.25, and platinum was at $1,128.

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.5588 and against the euro at 1.3877. The dollar was trading at 0.8902 against the euro and 119.97 against the Japanese yen.

And today, Easyjet posted its first first-half profit since 2002 as the fall in the oil price led to lower fuel bills. The airline reported a pre-tax profit of £7m in the six months to the end of March, up from a loss of £53m in the same period a year earlier.

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