FTSE 100 watch: Drop in sterling props up Footsie

The UK benchmark index has climbed into positive territory in today’s session, finding support in a fall in sterling. DCC (LON:DCC) meanwhile has rallied near the top of the blue-chip leaderboard after updating investors on its recent performance and announcing a purchase in Norway.

As of 12:33 GMT, the Footsie had added 46.39 points to stand 0.65 percent higher at 7,218.54, with a fall in the pound boosting shares in companies with international exposure.
“With a series of Article 50 Bill amendments failing last night, and the IFS issuing an ugly assessment of Britain’s economy, there wasn’t a lot of good news for sterling to cling on to,” Connor Campbell at Spreadex commented in an afternoon note.

DCC has been one of the top blue-chip gainers in percentage terms today after announcing that its operating profit for the third quarter had come in ‘strongly ahead’ of the prior year. The company further said that it had inked a deal to acquire Esso’s retail network in Norway. DCC’s share price is currently 5.88 percent better off at 6,750.00p.
At the other end of the spectrum has been BP (LON:BP), whose shares have been sold off as the oil major’s fourth-quarter earnings fell short of analyst expectations. BP’s shares are currently changing hands 2.74 percent in the red at 463.49p.

Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG, commented that if the FTSE 100 index can move through the 7,200-point level, “the next the next targets become 7,276 and 7,348, with the record-high at 7,359 then in sight”. A firm close below 7,130 meanwhile would “suggest the bounce has run its course”.
**The FTSE 100 index was 0.65 percent up at 7,218.88 points as of 14:43 GMT on Tuesday, 07 February 2017.**