By Patrick Munnelly, Market Analyst, Tickmill
The FTSE 100 limped towards the close again today, rotating around the flatline over the course of the day. The index closed the week at 7914.13, up 11 points on the day.
FTSE-100 biggest movers
Some cracks in the rally have started to materialise towards the backend of the week with commodities starting to creak. This has led to the rally leaders, the industrial miners, coming under increasing pressure with Rio Tinto LON:RIO down 5.7%+, Anglo American LON:AAL shedding 5.9%+ and Fresnillo LON:FRES losing 3%+ on the day. The miners have retreated in unison with the copper prices that have been sliding. Glencore LON:GLEN added to the pity party as they reported lower than expected production numbers for zinc, nickel and copper for the first quarter.
On the positive side of the ledger, Dowlais Group [LON:DWL] has stormed to the top of the index today with a 4.3% gain on the session driven by Reuters reporting that the UK auto supplier is developing rare earth magnets for production in the U.S. market as carmakers look to source more parts locally and benefit from subsidies provided by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), its top executive said on Thursday.
UK economy expanding
On the fundamental front, the UK’s economy advanced further into expansionary territory in April, with the service sector leading the charge whilst manufacturing continued to lag. According to S&PGlobal’s first reading, the composite index rose to a 12 month high of 53.9 in April from 52.2 in March. In the manufacturing sector, the index dropped to a four month low of 46.6 undercutting market expectations by a couple of points. However as expected, the services PMI nudged higher to 54.9, representing the highest print in a year.
