A string of upbeat earnings reports helped to lift markets this morning but investor sentiment is still being held back by the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
BP was the biggest riser on the FTSE 100 after announcing a $2.4 billion profit in the second quarter and lifting its dividend by 4 per cent. The company said it would give its shareholders $1.4 billion through share buybacks, an announcement that caused its share price to surge by 3.43 per cent. Standard Chartered was not far behind, climbing by 3.2 per cent, or 14p, to 451p after announcing that reduced credit losses helped it beat estimates in the second quarter.
The positive announcements helped to bolster London’s blue-chip index. The FTSE 100 was trading at 7,106.63, up 24.910, or 0.35 per cent. After opening in the red, the FTSE 250 also inched 0.35 per cent higher at 23,290.40.
The mid-cap index was boosted by Direct Line Insurance, which reported a 10 per cent increase in profits in its latest half-year results and enjoyed a 4.15 per cent rise in its share price as a result. Domino’s Pizza also climbed by 3.7 per cent after reporting a 28 per cent rise in underlying profit before tax for the six months ending June 27.
The FTSE 100 has climbed by almost 10 per cent this year thanks to ultra-loose monetary policy and Britain’s emergence from lockdown. However, fears about the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus are holding back confidence, particularly as China is now battling to combat the strain, which has spread to at least 14 provinces.
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Jeffrey Halley, an analyst at Oanda, a foreign exchange platform, said: “Concerns [are] rising once again that the global recovery could be thrown off track by the virus. What is spooking markets is China. It’s not a huge reach to extrapolate even more supply chain disruptions, especially if it proves as elusive to control for Chinese authorities as it has to officials globally.”
