Image Source: Pexels

London stocks experienced a decline on Friday as investors reacted to a decrease in domestic retail sales in June, coupled with a drop in commodity prices. The FTSE 100 index fell by 0.11%, indicating a downward trend for the week. The FTSE 250 also decreased. The decline in precious metal miners, with a 2.5% drop, heavily impacted the index. Fresnillo experienced a 5.4% decrease, leading to the lowest position in the FTSE 100, in line with the decline in spot gold prices by more than 1%. Industrial metal miners also fell by 1.9% due to the decrease in copper prices, which reached a three-month low without Chinese stimulus measures. On the other hand, aerospace and defence stocks saw a 0.2% gain amidst the broader declines, following discussions between senior executives from British defence firms and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy regarding the need to enhance military support in the country's conflict with Russia.

The latest domestic retail sales data revealed a 1.2% decline in June, exceeding the estimated 0.4% fall, leading to an increased likelihood of an August cut to 43%, up from approximately 39% on Thursday. This follows recent data indicating a slowdown in wage growth and inflation at the Bank of England's 2% target.Personal goods and retail stocks experienced declines of 2.8% and 0.6% respectively. In London, Hargreaves Lansdown saw a 1% decrease despite strong growth in new customers and net new business in the fourth quarter. LSEG Group's shares also slightly declined following an outage on its Workspace news and data platform that affected user access worldwide.

Looking ahead, focus will shift to corporate earnings in the United States and the UK next week. U.S. inflation numbers will be closely monitored as the last crucial dataset before the Federal Reserve's next rate cut decision.

FTSE Bias: Bullish Above Bearish below 8225

• Above 8363 opens 8500
• Primary support 8000
• Primary objective 8023
• 5 Day VWAP bearish
• 20 Day VWAP bearish

More By This Author: