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The FTSE 100 index climbed 0.8%. Housebuilders were the market darlings, basking in the glow of rising house prices. According to Halifax, UK house price growth hit 2.3% annually in July, up from 1.6% in June. The average house price hit £291,268, up from £289,042 in June.
Across the pond, Wall Street was in a good mood too. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.8%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both enjoyed a 1.0% lift. Not to be outdone, Asian markets joined the party, after the Bank of Japan's Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida's pledge to keep monetary policy ultra-loose amid market turbulence.
In the corporate world, WPP had a mixed bag of news. The advertising giant reported flat revenue for the first half of 2024 at £7.23 billion, with a 3.8% dip in pretax profit to £525 million. They decided to keep the dividend steady at 15.0p but lowered their outlook for the year. WPP also announced the sale of its majority stake in FGS Global for a tidy $1.7 billion.
Things to read today:
- It doesn't look like a recession. Here's how it could happen (Wall Street Journal).
- Why is Britain so ugly (The Spectator).
- Johannesburg needs $12 billion to upgrade its networks (Bloomberg).
