London's FTSE 100 ticked up on Friday morning in a quiet day for company news.
Leading headlines was confirmation from Ofgem that energy prices would be hiked by 10% this October following a rise in wholesale prices, affecting 28 million households.
Consumer confidence figures for August showed sentiment remained unchanged month-on-month after hitting its highest level for almost two years in July.
Among companies, Melrose was the only real mover early on, falling over 4%, which coincided with news the company had bought back over 388,000 shares.
In Europe, Nestle announced Mark Schneider would be replaced by company veteran Laurent Freixe as chief executive after eight years at the helm.
And finally, attention turns later to the Jackson Hole Symposium and Fed chair Jerome Powell’s speech, with investors awaiting any clues on the depth of US rate cuts.
