FTSE 100 near record high amid interest rate cut hopes – as it happened

A view of the City of London. Photograph: James Manning/PA

3.55pm GMT

Afternoon summary

With the FTSE 100 poised to close at its highest level in over a year, here’s a round-up of the main stories today:

• UK retail sales stagnated last month, as wet weather kept shoppers away from the high street

• Aston Martin has poached the chief executive of its rival Bentley to be its new CEO

• Russia’s central bank has left interest rates on hold at 16%

• Shares in Nike have dropped 8% after it predicted revenues would fall in the first half of its next financial year

3.42pm GMT

I don’t think we’ll see a record high on the FTSE 100 today, alas.

The index is still holding its gains – up 53 points or 0.7% at 7935, just over 100 points away from last year’s all-time intraday high of 8047 points.

A record high would be welcome news for investors in the UK stock market.

But…Alex Wright, portfolio manager of the Fidelity Special Situations Fund and Fidelity Special Values, says there has been “little change in the generally weak sentiment towards UK equities” since the Brexit referendum in 2016.

Wright adds:

The strength of US equities, led by the ‘Magnificent Seven’ tech-related stocks, has continued to dominate the market narrative in the opening months of 2024.

This can be seen in valuation multiples, with the UK trading on an estimated PE multiple of c.11x for 2024, which compares to nearly double that for US equities at over 21x, or even Europe and Japan on c.15x.