Markets: FTSE 100 adds to recent gains

published 15 July 2015

FTSE 100 up 0.2% to 6,753
Gold down 0.18% to $1,155.83
£/$ - 1.5636

Supermarkets were in demand. Tesco rose 1.9%, Sainsbury's climbed 1.8%, and Morrisons was 1.5% higher. Broadcaster Sky was the day's highest climber, adding 4.1% after analysts raised their earnings forecasts.

In Europe's markets yesterday, the Paris CAC 40 rose 0.7% to 5,032, and the German Xetra Dax was 0.3% higher at 11,516.

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In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to 18,053, the S&P 500 each added 0.5% to 2,108, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.7% higher at 5,104.

Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.4% to 20,463, and the broader Topix index rose 0.5% to 1,646. And in China, the CSI 300 lost 3.5% to 3,966, and the Shanghai Composite lost 3% to 3,805.

Brent spot was trading at $58.31 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $52.98. Spot gold was trading at $1,155 an ounce, silver was at $15.31 and platinum was at $1,026.

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.5658 and against the euro at 1.4212. The dollar was trading at 0.9076 against the euro and 123.52 against the Japanese yen.

And today, Burberry reported a slowing in sales growth in the last quarter. Sales grew by 8% in the three months to the end of June, compared with 11% in the previous quarter. Sales in China in particular were weak when compared to Europe and the USA.