The FTSE100 was on a downward slope for most of last week with investors cooling off after the past eventful weeks. Concerns on lack of growth in the Eurozone weighed in on the FTSE, which closed 22 points lower and maintained the downward trend for most of Tuesday.
US Stocks also closed lower for the first time in five trading sessions which saw the indices hitting multi year highs.
Monday saw the Rightmove House Price index which declined 2.4% since July with average housing prices staying unchanged for the most part since 2007.
August inflation was at 2.5% down from July’s 2.6% on account of drop in clothing, footwear, domestic gas and furniture but appreciating fuel prices. Food prices remained largely unchanged in the Consumer Price Index report by the ONS.
Last week also saw the September MPC minutes being released which showed that the members were open to more quantitative easing, likely during the fourth quarter of this year, should the need arise. On late Thursday night, BoE Governor Sir Mervyn King, in his first televised interview commented that the Government could be excused for not meeting its budget deficit targets on account of a global economic slowdown, giving Chancellor George Osbourne some breathing space.
There was not much of discussion in regards to changing the interest rates which are currently at 0.5%.
Wednesday’s sentiment was mostly weighed down by news from China’s manufacturing data. The FTSE managed to close only 20.32 points higher at 5888.48. Spain managed to exceed its bond auction target of €4.5 billion and sold €4.8 billion on its 10 year bonds. But investors are still concerned about Spain delaying the financial help.
The CBI Factory orders report was released on Thursday which showed an improved reading of -8 in for September a clear improvement from -21 in August. Confederation of British Industry however noted that the economic outlook continued to be challenging for businesses.
Later in the day, the retail sales report was released which showed a 2.7% annual growth but a 0.2% decline in August due to most customers staying home to watch the Olympic games. For the periods of June through August, retail sales grew at 0.6%.
Friday saw the UK’s PSNB or Public Sector Net Borrowing reportwhich came out at £14.4 billion in the month of August, below the general consensus of £15 billion, but on par with the same month last year with public sector net debt higher by £0.4 billion in comparison to August last year.
| Indices at a glance | |
| EUROPE | |
| FTSE 100 Index | 5852.61 (-0.03%) |
| German DAX | 7451.62 (0.84%) |
| CAC 40 | 3530.72 (0.59%) |
| Dutch AEX | 334.15 (-0.03%) |
| ASIA | |
| NIKKEI 225 | 9110.00 (0.25%) |
| Hang Seng | 20734.94 (0.70%) |
| ASX200 | 4408.30 (0.25%) |
| Shanghai Composite | 2026.69 (0.09%) |
| US | |
| NASDAQ Composite | 3179.47 (-0.13%) |
| Dow Jones Industrials | 13579.47 (-0.13%) |
| S&P500 | 1460.15 (-0.11%) |
Key events for the UK for the week ahead – September 24 – 28
25/09/2012 – CBI Distributive Trades Survey: Confederation of British Industry will be releasing the September survey report for distributive trades. The consensus is that a moderate retail sales growth is expected after existing data points to a decline in sales on account of the Olympic games. It is expected that the survey would be at an improved +5% year on year in September after August’s figures were at -3%.
27/09/2012 – Revised Q2 GDP: The ONS will be releasing its revised GDP data for the second quarter. The first couple of revisions pushed the GDP from -0.7% to -0.5%. The latest revision is like to push the figure a point higher.
28/09/2012 – Gfk/NOP Consumer Confidence Index: September’s data is likely to have moved higher in comparison to August but the long term outlook could still look bleak. The consumer confidence has been moving within the -29 to -33 range since January 2011 and in May it reached the record lows of -29 marking a 40 year low.
Estimates are that the consumer confidence might edge up to -28.
