48 Wednesday December 22 2021 | the timesBusinessMarkets
Major indices
New York
Dow Jones 35492.70 (+560.54)
Nasdaq Composite 15341.09 (+360.14)
S&P 500 4649.23 (+81.21)
Tokyo
Nikkei 225 28517.59 (+579.78)
Hong Kong
Hang Seng 22971.33 (+226.47)
Amsterdam
AEX Index 774.95 (+11.92)
Sydney
AO 7666.70 (+64.50)
Frankfurt
DAX 15447.44 (+207.77)
Singapore
Straits 3085.08 (+12.11)
Brussels
BEL20 4225.59 (+63.15)
Paris
CAC-40 6964.99 (+94.89)Zurich
SMI Index 12682.53 (+92.64)
DJ Euro Stoxx 50 4174.99 (+67.86)
London
FTSE 100 7297.41 (+99.38)
FTSE 250 22820.30 (+270.42)
FTSE 350 4166.72 (+55.48)
FTSE Eurotop 100 3475.48 (+50.85)
FTSE All-Shares 4144.88 (+55.04)
FTSE Non Financials 5002.67 (+66.37)
techMARK 100 6771.01 (+92.15)
Bargains n/a
US$ 1.3251 (+0.0044)
Euro 1.1758 (+0.0047)
£:SDR 0.98 (+0.00)
Exchange Index 80.31 (-1.32)
Bank of England official close (4pm)
CPI 114.48 Nov (2015 = 100)
RPI 314.30 Nov (Jan 1987 = 100)
RPIX 290.10 Jun (Jan 1987 = 100)
Morningstar Long Commodity 677.16 (+5.72)
Morningstar Long/Short Commod 4703.45 (+27.75)PRICES
Company Change
Carnival Rebounds after Monday’s plunge 10.0%
International Consolidated Airlines Group Renewed confidence in travel sector 6.9%
Tui Fears around Omicron variant ease 6.6%
Reach Recovers some losses 5.7%
easyJet Bounces back with rest of the travel sector 5.3%
Playtech Loses momentum after recent run -2.0%
Indivior Runs out of steam after seven-day rally -2.3%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals Profit-taking -2.4%
Ocado Would have benefited from tighter lockdown restrictions -2.7%
PureTech Health Positive sentiment grinds to a halt -4.6%The day’s biggest movers
Jessica Newman Market report
Green vision Aviva, the insurer, is to create a forest in the Glen Dye area of
Aberdeenshire with Par Equity, the fund manager, as part of a climate initiative
ALAMYJD Sports gets big tick
as Nike beats forecasts
Carnival, the cruise ship operator, put
on 121¾p, or 9.6 per cent, to £13.92 and
Tui — given an extra boost by Peel
Hunt saying that the pandemic may
help the travel group to emerge as a
“more integrated and digitised
business” — rose 14¼p, or 6.6 per cent,
to 228½p. Ocado, however, which has
been banking on people stocking up
on food and booze at home because
they are not travelling or going out,
slid to the bottom of London’s premier
index, ending the day down 45½p, or
2.7 per cent, at £16.36½.
Oil rose, with Brent crude, the
benchmark index, gaining 2.9 per cent
to $73.59 to recoup part of its fall of
more than 5 per cent on Monday. BP
added 8½p, or 2.6 per cent, to 331¾p
while Royal Dutch Shell’s B stock wasup 44¼p, or 2.8 per cent, at £16.18½.
Housebuilders advanced after upbeat
data on the number of housing
transactions last month. Taylor
Wimpey rose 5¾p, or 3.5 per cent, to
169¾p, while Barratt Developments
was up 21¾p, or 3.1 per cent, at 724¾p.
Talk that Entain, the Ladbrokes and
Coral owner, is among suitors eyeing
up Sisal, the Italian gambling
operator, lifted it 34½p, or 2.2 per cent,
to £16.32.
Among smaller companies, Open
Orphan struck a chord with investors.
It rose 1¾p, or 7.7 per cent, to 22¾p
after its hVivo subsidiary was awarded
a £5 million contract to start human
trials on a drug to develop protection
against respiratory viral infections.A
lthough it isn’t listed in
London, there’s no doubt
that the City keeps a close
eye on what is happening
at Nike — and yesterdayoffered a prime example. A rise in
Nike’s quarterly sales had a knock-on
effect at JD Sports, pushing the British
sportswear fashion retailer towards
the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard.
Nike’s forecast-beating results on
Monday night revealed a rise in net
income to $1.34 billion, from
$1.25 billion a year earlier, while sales
in North America, its home and
largest market, climbed by 12 per cent
and helped to offset a 20 per cent
drop in sales in China.
Analysts were happy. “As Nike
manages through supply chain delays
and inventory constraints, the brand
strength remains untarnished and its
digital strategy continues to drive the
profit model higher,” Camilo Lyon, an
analyst at BTIG in New York, said.
This largely echoed the views of
James Grzinic, at Jefferies, who said
this month that the impact of tough
trading conditions in China continued
to be offset by the “strength of
demand and strong margin progress
made everywhere else”.
All of which reflected well on JD,
which has a history of securing Nike
product exclusives for its shops. Its
shares closed up 8p, or 4 per cent, to
207¼p.
The FTSE 100 recovered its losses
from Monday as investors shrugged
off concerns about the impact of the
Omicron variant of Covid-19. The
index rose 99.38 points, or 1.4 per cent,
to 7,297.41, while the FTSE 250 gained
270.42, or 1.2 per cent, to 22,820.30.
Travel and leisure shares enjoyed a
relief rally, with International
Consolidated Airlines Group, the
British Airways owner, flying to the
top of the Footsie, rising 9¼p, or
6.9 per cent, to 140p, while easyJet
was up 26¾p, or 5.3 per cent, at 533¼p.Wall Street report
Strong gains in technology stocks
led indices higher after Monday’s
sell-off. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose
360.14 points, or 2.4 per cent, to
15,341.09 and the Dow Jones
industrial average closed up 560.54
points, or 1.6 per cent, at 35,492.70.