FTSE 100 watch: Footsie holds steady as ECB trims stimulus

The UK benchmark index has climbed into positive territory in today’s session, holding steady as the European Central Bank (ECB) announced plans to trim its stimulus programme. In individual movers, Barclays (LON:BARC) has fallen to the bottom of the FTSE 100 leaderboard after posting its third-quarter and nine-month results this morning.

FTSE 100 steady after ECB

As of 12:29 BST, the FTSE 100 had gained 35.62 points to stand 0.48 percent higher at 7,482.83. The Footsie has held on to gains as the ECB announced that from January next year, its net asset purchases are intended to continue at a monthly pace of €30 billion until the end of September, or beyond, if needed, down from the current €60 billion per month.

CNBC quoted ING chief economist Carsten Brzeski  as saying in a note that the bank had announced a ‘gentle exit’ from its quantitative easing stimulus programme.

“In short, today’s decision is a sea change but a very gentle one; not a big-bang u-turn in ECB monetary policy,” he pointed out.

Barclays under pressure

Barclays has been today’s most notable FTSE 100 faller after reporting that its Corporate and Investment Bank had been hit by weak market conditions in the third quarter of the year.

“The main thing (with Barclays) is there’s been a big drop in the income from the investment bank, which is more of a market-wide issue […] and probably a bit of sideways movement in the rest of the business,” Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said, as quoted by Reuters. Barclays’ shares are currently changing hands 6.04 percent in the red at 185.10p.

The FTSE 100 was 0.43 percent up at 7,478.99  points as of 13:49 BST on Thursday, 26 October 2017.