{"id":9856,"date":"2021-05-18T09:34:28","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T09:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2021\/05\/18\/ftse-100-edges-higher-on-employment-data\/"},"modified":"2021-05-18T09:34:28","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T09:34:28","slug":"ftse-100-edges-higher-on-employment-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2021\/05\/18\/ftse-100-edges-higher-on-employment-data\/","title":{"rendered":"FTSE 100 Edges Higher On Employment Data"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div id=\"ctl00_CPI_dvBody\">\n<p> U.K. stocks eked out modest gains on Tuesday, with optimism around the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions and a strong reading on the U.K. labor market helping underpin investor sentiment. <\/p>\n<p>Britain&#8217;s unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked lower in the first quarter despite the national lockdown, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics.<\/p>\n<p>The jobless rate fell 0.3 percentage points to 4.8 percent in the first quarter. This was also below economists&#8217; forecast of 4.9 percent.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, the employment rate was estimated at 75.2 percent, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter.<\/p>\n<p>The benchmark FTSE 100 rose 30 points, or 0.4 percent, to 7,063 after closing 0.2 percent lower on Monday. <\/p>\n<p>Commodity-related stocks were moving higher, with miners Anglo American and Glencore both rising about 2 percent. Oil firm BP Plc added 1.8 percent and Royal Dutch Shell was up 1.3 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Vodafone slumped 6.5 percent after the mobile operator missed market expectations with a 1.2 percent in full-year adjusted earnings.<\/p>\n<p>Soft drinks maker Britvic rallied 3.3 percent. The company reinstated its dividend, despite reporting a decline in first-half profit and revenue.<\/p>\n<p>Software company Micro Focus jumped 4.7 percent. The company said its first-half performance was set to be ahead of market views.<\/p>\n<p>Real estate investment trust Land Securities fell about 1 percent after reporting a wider loss for full year. <\/p>\n<p>Tobacco company Imperial Brands advanced 1.4 percent after it reported a modest rise in first-half revenue and backed annual outlook. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Market Analysis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n        window.fbAsyncInit = function () {\n            FB.init({\n                status: true,\n                cookie: true,\n                xfbml: true\n            });\n        };\n        (function (d) {\n            var js, id = 'facebook-jssdk'; if (d.getElementById(id)) { return; }\n            js = d.createElement('script'); js.id = id; js.async = true;\n            js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js\";\n            d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(js);\n        }(document));\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<br \/>FTSE 100 Edges Higher On Employment Data<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2021-05-18 09:34:28<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.K. stocks eked out modest gains on Tuesday, with optimism around the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions and a strong reading on the U.K. labor market helping underpin investor sentiment. Britain&#8217;s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-euro-markets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/9857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}