Yahoo Finance FTSE closes higher as pound soars and Wall Street holds gains
A look at how the major markets are performing on Thursday
The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) ticked up on Thursday as the pound (GBPUSD=X) hit a 15-month high against the dollar, rising past the $1.30 mark.
Meanwhile, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed the UK's economy in contraction for May.
Economists from PwC put the pullback down to multiple factors including the extra coronation bank holiday, and the fact there was industrial action. At 0.1%, it was still not as bad a drop as had been predicted, with a consensus expectation of a 0.3% fall.
The FTSE closed 0.34% higher, while the CAC (^FCHI) in Paris climbed 0.65% and Germany's DAX (^GDAXI) rose 0.82%.
Sterling continued to climb, hitting a 15-month high, as weaker-than-expected US inflation figures increased expectations that interest rates were close to peaking across the pond.
In the US, stocks kept up their rally on Thursday, after producer price data gave further evidence inflation is cooling and earnings season started to get underway.
The Dow Jones (^DJI) rose 0.1% to 34,372 points. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) advanced 0.47% to 4,493 points and the tech-heavy NASDAQ (^IXIC) climbed 0.96% to 14,050.
Read more: UK economy shrinks by 0.1% in May
Elsewhere in the UK house builders signalled potential weakness in the market to come, as mortgage rates continue to cause anxiety.
An update from Barratt (BDEV.L) warned of deteriorating conditions in the market due to a collapse in sales to first-time buyers. The news drove its stock down more than 5% in early trade, settling around 2.6% lower later on in the session.
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