The Market Report with Katie Pilbeam. FTSE 100 shrugged off house price inflation worries and opened strongly led by miners and other high yielders. London’s blue chip index added 51 to 7,074.
UK house prices jumped at their fastest for seven years in May, according to building society Nationwide. The average price is now almost £243,000 or 10.9% higher than a year ago.
DIY retailer Wickes, meanwhile, reported five months revenues were up by 46% on a year ago and by 23% on the year before Covid-19. Wickes said its strong supplier relationships would help it deal with materials shortages reported elsewhere.
Pub and restaurant trade bodies have warned it would be a serious blow for the sector if the government pushed back the next reopening date of 21 June. Some scientists have called for restraint due to the possibility of a third wave of infections caused by the Indian or Delta variant of Covid-19.
Among the small caps, TomCo Energy PLC’s (LON:TOM) Greenfield Energy joint venture has reached key milestones. The oil sands project, located in Utah, has received a draft front-end engineering and design study for its first commercial scale plant.
i3 Energy PLC (LON:I3E)(TSX:ITE) will soon pay its first dividend and start a cycle of regular cash returns to shareholders. The oil and gas company has made its first revenue in 2020.
Ncondezi Energy Ltd (LON:NCCL) has completed construction of solar panels at its first commercial and industrial solar and battery storage project in Mozambique. Commissioning is on track for the end of June.
