Wednesday, 14th June: For those who felt disappointment and heart break over the result of Brexit this time last year, fear not, because we might be allowed back in! Things wouldn’t be exactly the same as before though, a bit like giving things another go for the sake of the children, but animosity remains. The European Parliaments Brexit co-coordinator revealed that if we were to come back, Britain shouldn’t expect to keep getting its EU budget rebates, or complex opt-outs from EU rules. Of course, this list could become longer, and Britain may not even accept the offer in the first place. Basically, Brexit is doing a Brexit, and remaining to be ambiguous.
Well the president of the National Farmers Union has give his opinion, and urges the government should take a more gentle approach with the aim of peaceful results. The leader of the farmers union has expressed that the most pressing concern regarding the agricultural sector is the need to make sure that there will be “continued tariff free trade and frictionless access to the single EU market”.
Although unemployment in the UK was held steady at 4.6%, and inflation was seen to reach 2.9% in May, its highest in almost four years, wage after inflation fell once again, reflecting Brits’ tighter control over their spending. When excluding bonuses, nominal earnings rose 1.7% which went against expectations of a 2.0% rise. There was hope for a more positive outcome so that the pound could receive some support ahead of the BoE rate meeting being held tomorrow.
The FTSE opened flat this morning, up 0.02%. The FTSE250 however was up 0.58%, and amongst the biggest gainers was Bellway. After the house builder released a trading update for the period from February to June 2017 revealing that sales demand was up 13%, and the increase in housing completions for the full year is expected to be 10%, the share price followed and was up roughly 4.5% at £29.77. Performance thus far has been very impressive, especially after the share price hit a low of £16.89 in July last year. Also at the top was Aveva, the software solutions group which was up 4.5% at £20.40 regardless of no news being released, they have been receiving positive coverage.
Throughout the afternoon, the FTSE was up 0.57% to 7543. The gains came from the same sector which pushed the FTSE250 up at the start of the day, the house-building sector. Other house builders also benefited from Bellway’s positive update. The likes of Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey were up 2.6% and 2.4% respectively. However, at the end of the day, the FTSE tumbled back down 0.11% to 7491.