FTSE 100 share price: Supermarkets suffer as January ends – but where are the gains? | City & Business | Finance
The FTSE 100 Index has had an interesting month. As a new month is just around the corner, Express looks at how the top 100 UK companies have performed in January 2022. Here is an overview of the best and worst performers, as well as a summary of today’s share prices.
FTSE 100 share prices have slumped in recent days. On January 27, the index closed standing at £7,554.31 but this has since fallen to £7,464.37 on January 31.
The value of the index fell by 0.02 percent on January 31 reaching a high of £7,523.95 and a low of £7,450.89.
After a strong start rising by as much as 0.8 percent, the FTSE 100 lost its gains, finishing flat by the day’s close.
Healthcare, commodity-linked shares and supermarkets were the biggest contributors to the index’s neutral performance today.
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The index was dragged down by supermarkets with Sainsbury’s at bottom of the index, down by 3.6 percent, while Tesco finished 2.2 percent lower.
While pharmaceuticals Rio Tinto, Anglo American, Glencore and AstraZeneca were also among the top drags.
The Evening Standard reports it’s not clear exactly what is weighing down the supermarket sector, but it could be linked to concerns over the cost of living.
Vodafone finished on top of the index, as it was up by three percent today.
Brian Hillard, chief UK economist at Societe General told Reuters: “There are some concerns about the hit to disposable income from the surge in inflation coming in the spring, but this might just redouble the committee’s (MPC) resolve to bring it back under control.”
FTSE monthly market summary overview
Overall, FTSE has risen over the past six months. The index has risen by 5.4 percent from the end of June 2021 to the end of January 2022.
The FTSE 100 ended January 1.1 percent higher than the month before, this is a promising start to the new year.
It significantly outperformed the wider European stock aggregate (STOXX), which recorded its worst month since October 2020.
Unsurprisingly, the travel and leisure stocks in the domestically focused mid-cap index (the FTMC) gained the most ground. Overall the FTMC rose by 1.3 percent this month.
The financial, insurance and industrial sectors helped to push up the FTSE 100 Index this month.
Vodafone was among the top FTSE 100 gainers, rising by 1.9 percent and Purplebricks Group also rose by an encouraging 1.3 percent.
What is the FTSE 100 Index?
FTSE or as it is often nicknamed “footsie” is the name for the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 Index.
The FTSE 100 Index is made up of the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.
These top blue-chip companies represent approximately 81 percent of the UK market.
The index includes some multinational companies as well as British companies.
The Index is often used as a basis for investment products, such as derivatives and exchange-traded funds.
