AstraZeneca Plc: Healthcare, consumer staples push FTSE 100 up, worries of recession fade, Health News, ET HealthWorld
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Healthcare, consumer staples push FTSE 100 up, worries of recession fade
Top boosters were consumer staples such as Unilever Plc and Diageo Plc, and healthcare names like AstraZeneca Plc and GSK Plc. The pound fell 0.2 per cent. Both the FTSE indexes are set for gains this quarter. The blue-chip index is on course to close at its highest quarterly levels since mid-2018. The FTSE 250 was up 0.2 per cent.
Reuters
March 31, 2023, 18:19 IST
London: UK's FTSE 100 inched higher on Friday as healthcare and consumer staples stocks gained, while investors were relieved that the domestic economy narrowly avoided a recession late last year.
Data by the Office for National Statistics showed the UK's economic output grew 0.1per cent in the October to December period, amid expectations that the economy would not show any growth.
The FTSE 100 was up 0.2 per cent, as of 0858 GMT.
"The fact that you scarcely avoided a recession for the time being is the key positive from the data. Will it be a better year ahead? That's the key question markets are asking themselves now," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG Group.
Top boosters were consumer staples such as Unilever Plc and Diageo Plc, and healthcare names like AstraZeneca Plc and GSK Plc. The pound fell 0.2 per cent.
Both the FTSE indexes are set for gains this quarter. The blue-chip index is on course to close at its highest quarterly levels since mid-2018. The FTSE 250 was up 0.2 per cent.
For the monthly session, the blue-chip index was down 3 per cent and the mid-cap index shed 5per cent, logging their worst monthly sessions since September 2022.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it would refer UnitedHealth Group's 1.24 billion pound ($1.54 billion) acquisition of EMIS Group Plc for a Phase 2 investigation, sending the healthcare technology firm down 21.6 per cent.
Ocado Group Plc advanced 2.0 per cent on winning a High Court legal action brought by Norwegian robotics firm AutoStore after the judge dismissed its patent infringement claims.
The FTSE 250 index dropped 0.1 per cent weighed down by a 38.0 per cent loss in NCC Group as the cyber security firm revised down the range of annual group adjusted operating profit forecast.
Traders will now focus on US personal consumption expenditure data due at 12:30 pm GMT for clues about the Federal Reserve's monetary policy trajectory.
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Friday, March 31, 2023 at 12:49 pm