FTSE 100 Closes June In The Red

Global financial news saw the FTSE 100 index close in the red at the end of June. Many investors believe this was in part down to the ongoing tensions caused by the US-China trade war.

It eventually closed on Thursday 27th at a price of 7,402 which was down around 14 points. This was in contrast to the FTSE 250 which actually made gains over the course of the same period to finish at a price of 19,314.

Political Tensions To Blame

As noted above, many blame political tensions for having a negative impact on the way this index performed. This is not solely down to the upcoming meeting of President Trump with China’s Xi Jinping though.

There is also the upcoming G20 meeting taking place which seems to have unsettled the market too.

The US-China war does seem to be the major problem though with no one sure exactly how Saturday’s talks will go. It is thought that the trade war has reached a truce but the US still apparently has concerns over security around Chinese tech firm, Huawei.

Kingfisher Did Well

Although the whole index was down by close of trading, some individual shares did well.

Retailer Kingfisher for example gained over 4% on their price after news emerged of Thierry Garnier becoming their new CEO.

E-Therapeutics Ltd also had a good day which saw their share price shoot up by over 30% in the late afternoon session. This was down to Woodford Investment Management clearing their need to liquidate assets.

It was not all good news though for individual FTSE 100 companies. Property giant Rightmove was down 3.8% to a price of 533.1p after their stocks were reclassified to a ‘neutral’ status by UBS.

The biggest faller over the whole day was XPS Pensions Group PLC. This was down to predictions that profits would be impacted temporarily by cost increases over the coming year. This saw their share price drop by almost 40%.

Will the FTSE 100 recover?

Until the G20 meeting and the US-China talks are over, then it is a little hard to say. Investors in this index would be well advised to tread cautiously for now while the political picture becomes clearer. As the FTSE 100 is less UK-centric than the FTSE 250, any further political upheavals could be costly.