Closing post
Time to wrap up….
Activity in the UK construction sector fell last month at the sharpest rate since the height of the Covid pandemic amid a collapse in housebuilding, underscoring the challenge facing the government to meet its 1.5m new homes target.
The figures from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed activity fell in July at the steepest pace since May 2020, during the first UK coronavirus lockdown.
The data provider said a sharp drop in residential building pulled down its monthly purchasing managers index (PMI) for the UK construction sector as a whole, alongside a plunge in civil engineering and a softer downturn in commercial property.
It’s been another day dominated by Donald Trump’s trade wars too, with the White House is placing an additional 25% tariff on imports from India.
The move brings total tariffs up to 50%, in retaliation over the country’s purchase of Russia oil.
Shares in European pharmaceutical companies have sunk to a near four-month low, after Donald Trump repeated his threats to introduce tariffs on drug imports “within the next week or so”.
Europe’s STOXX Healthcare index has dropped to its lowest level since mid-April, shortly after the US president’s initial “liberation day” tariff announcements.
The Japanese carmaker Honda has reported a 50% drop in quarterly profits as it counted the cost of Donald Trump’s tariffs and electric vehicle policies, even as it said the full impact would be less than its worst expectations.
The manufacturer’s operating profits fell by half to 244bn yen (£1.2bn) in the three months to June, according to financial results published on Wednesday. That was mainly because of a 124bn yen hit from tariffs, as well as 113bn yen in losses on electric car sales in the US.
Elsewhere….OpenAI is reportedly in early talks about a sale of shares held by current and former employees that would value it at half a trillion dollars, overtaking Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
If the transaction goes ahead, the value of the ChatGPT developer would rise by about two-thirds, from $300bn (£225bn).
And…FTSE 100 miner Glencore has decided to retain its stock market listing in London, rejecting calls for it to move to the US in a boost for the London Stock Exchange.
FTSE 100 ends at new closing high
Despite the latest twists in Donald Trump’s trade wars, the UK’s stock market has ended the day at a new closing high.
The FTSE 100 index has cloased 21 points higher at 9164 points, up 0.24%. Although that’s a closing peak, it’s still below the intraday high of 9190 hit last week.
The top risers were insurer Hiscox (+9.4%), precious metals producer Fresnillo (+8.9%), drinks firm Diageo (+4.2%) and BP (+3%).
