Business live: FTSE 100 to breach 9,000 for first time
The FTSE 100 closed at a new all-time high of 8,998.06 on Monday as the US-UK trade deal meant Britain avoided the trade turmoil affecting markets in the European Union, which faces possible US tariffs of 30 per cent. The intraday high was 8,999.22.
Asian shares rose overnight as the focus turned from tariffs to US inflation data and quarterly results from America's biggest banks. Tokyo's Nikkei 255 was up 0.24 per cent, but China's SSE Composite fell 0.8 per cent as strong second-quarter GDP growth slowed.
The dollar was flat against a basket of currencies and safe-haven buying buoyed the price of gold, up 0.6 per cent to $3,363.90 an ounce. The oil price dipped 0.3 per cent to $69 a barrel.
China's economy slowed in the second quarter with gross domestic product (GDP) growing 5.2 per cent year on year. This is down from 5.4 per cent growth in the first quarter but ahead of analysts' expectations of growth of 5.1 per cent.
The world's second-largest economy has so far avoided a sharp slowdown in part due to a fragile US-China trade truce and support from Beijing, but economists expect a weaker second half as exports lose momentum, prices continue to fall and consumer confidence remains low.
'China achieved growth above the official target of 5 per cent in the second quarter partly because of frontloading of exports,' said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management. 'The above target growth in Q1 and Q2 give the government room to tolerate some slowdown in the second half of the year.'
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