Markets: FTSE 100 nudges higher

published 8 June 2016

FTSE 100 up 0.2% to 6,284
Gold down 0.12% to $1,243.81/oz
£/$ 1.4545

Royal Dutch Shell was the day's top performer, climbing 3.2%. Burberry Group and Next each added 2.1%, while Irish conglomerate DCC gained 1.7%.

In Europe, the Paris CAC 40 rose 1.2% to 4,475 and the German Xetra Dax added 1.6% to 10,287.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 each rose 0.1% to 17,938 and 2,112 respectively, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.1% to 4,961.

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Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 added 0.9% to 16,830 and the broader Topix index gained 0.8% to 1,350. And in China, the CSI 300 fell 0.4% to 3,163 and the Shanghai Composite was 0.3% lower at 2,927.

Brent spot was trading at $51.40 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $50.32 Spot gold was trading at $1,253 an ounce, silver was at $16.63 and platinum was at $1,007.

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.4538 and against the euro at 1.2781. The dollar was trading at 0.8791 against the euro and 107.09 against the Japanese yen.

And today, Sainsbury's reported a fall in sales in the last quarter. Like-for-like sales excluding fuel fell by 0.8% in the 12 weeks to 4 June, with total sales up by 0.3%. Mike Coupe, the company's chief executive, said that despite the "competitive" environment, Sainsbury's would "continue to outperform our major peers".