Monday, 29th July: Just Eat were the talk of the blue-chip town today after confirming a merger with Dutch food-delivery company Takeaway.com, which also landed them the top spot on the FTSE 100 for the entirety of the day. Just Eat shares were up 23% following the news, which placed the shares at their highest level since March. The Just Eat merger news overshadowed the London Stock Exchange Group merger news, which was confirmed today regarding a move to buy financial data giant Refinitiv and allowed them to take the second spot on the blue-chip index, up more than 15.0%. Merger Monday played its part in helping the FTSE 100 overcome predictions of a slow start to the week.
Sterling was having a less optimistic day, falling more than 1.2% in the afternoon to around $1.2232 and its lowest since March 2017 following further over-confident demands from new PM Boris Johnson, and raising no-deal Brexit concerns which had an increasingly negative effect on the currency. Johnson made his way over to Scotland today for his first visit there as prime minister, where he is scheduled to visit a military base, and as part of a tour of the UK where he will announce extra funding for local communities.
The FTSE 100 closed 1.82% higher at 7686.61 on Monday, a fairly decent start to the week.