Closing summary
That’s all for today – here’s our main stories on the energy crisis:
The challenges facing Liz Truss’s government:
And in other news….
We’ll be back tomorrow… GW
European markets close in the red
European stock markets have closed in the red, after after a choppy Monday which saw the euro plunge to a two-decade low.
The main bourse all lost ground, amid fears of soaring gas prices and possible winter shortages after Gazprom failed to restart Nord Stream 1 on Saturday.
Germany’s DAX led the selloff, falling over 2%, led by carmakers Mercedes Benz and Porsche, and tyre maker Continental.
Italy’s FTSE MIB lost 2%, with France’s CAC down over 1%.
The FTSE 100, though, recovered its earlier losses to finish slightly higher, with oil companies boosted by the rise in crude prices after Opec’s production cut.
Cierre Europa
— Digital Capitals Trading (@DgitalCapitalsT) September 5, 2022
🔴 🇩🇪DAX -2,20% 12.763,19
🟢 🇬🇧FTSE 100 +0,07% 7.286,35
🔴 🇫🇷CAC 40 -1,20% 6.093,22
🔴 🇪🇺EuroStoxx50 -1,54% 3.489,85
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says Liz Truss’s victory lifted energy and defence stocks.
The new Prime Minister’s commitment to spending more on defence by upping the budget to 3% of GDP has boosted the sector, with BAE systems extending gains in early trade following news of her announcement. She is likely to take up the baton from Boris Johnson in his dedicated support for Ukraine and is likely to clamour for more support in terms of military hardware from European nations.
Her expressed distaste for a further windfall tax on the oil and gas sector will have added to the strength of energy giants today, which had already been boosted by the ratcheting higher of gas prices and the march back upwards of crude prices over supply constraints. BP and Shell were among the biggest climbers on the FTSE 100, while Harbour Energy in the FTSE 250 also gained more than 3%.’’
