While Trainline slumped to the bottom, Industrials helped FTSE 100 bounce back

While Trainline slumped to the bottom, Industrials helped FTSE 100 bounce back
May 20, 2021, 5:42 pm

By Shivani Kumaresan, Devik Jain

Gains in industrial stocks helped London’s FTSE 100 bounce back on Thursday from its worst daily performance in a week, while shares of Trainline slumped to the bottom of the mid-cap index as the U.K. reorganised its railway system.

The blue-chip index rose 1%, with Experian jumping 4.7% to the top of the index, a day after its upbeat quarterly revenue forecast.

The wider industrial index added 2.4%.

Banks and healthcare stocks, including HSBC Holdings, Prudential Plc, AstraZeneca Plc and Smith & Nephew, were also among the biggest boosts on the index.

The domestically focussed mid-cap FTSE 250 advanced 0.7%. Publisher Future surged 9.6% to the top of index after Deutsche Bank raised its price target on the stock.

Globally, stock markets saw a tentative rebound and bitcoin bounced more than 12% after one of its spectacular smashes, though tapering talk from the U.S. Federal Reserve kept bond markets under pressure.

“While the markets don’t want central banks to start raising interest rates too soon, they’re also clearly worried about rising prices running away and creating a situation where policymakers have no choice but to act”, said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

The COVID-19 situation is very different in emerging markets and this could be a threat to the commodity-focused firms on the FTSE, given a lot of demand comes from developing countries.”

The FTSE 100 has gained 8.3% year-to-date on optimism about economic recovery. But the index has been trading in a tight range recently as higher inflation has ignited fears that central banks might pare back their support sooner.

Among other stocks, Trainline tumbled 23.2% to eye its worst day on record. Britain said it will create a new public railway operator called Great British Railways which will own and maintain rail infrastructure, collect and set fares and contract private companies to run the trains.

Source: Reuters

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