FTSE 100 Index slipped during the opening hours today, influenced by a series of mixed earnings reports released by British companies. Notably, Flutter Entertainment and B&M European Value Retail posted earnings that missed their marks today, leading their share to fall over 9.5% and 4.3% on Thursday.
However, the negative impact was offset by upbeat earnings posted by AstraZeneca and Taylor Wimpey. Additionally, Autotrader was the top gainer out of the FTSE 100 stocks, surging by over 7.6% after announcing an increase in its t. On Thursday, the British benchmark index gained 54 points and was up 2.4% from its October lows.
FTSE 100 Remains Prone To BOE And US Fed Policies
The investors are bracing themselves for Jerome Powell’s speech at a conference later today. Usually, these speeches allow the traders to get clues and valuable insights into the Federal Reserve’s future actions, particularly regarding interest rate policies.
The Bank of England’s chief economist, Huw Pill, has expressed his support for maintaining a restrictive monetary policy to counter the rising inflation in the British economy.
Nevertheless, the FTSE 100 index has shown a good recovery since last week’s pause in rate hikes by the Bank of England. The index now sits only 7.3% below its yearly high as it makes its way to retest the downward trend line for a breakout.
FTSE 100 Index Forecast
FTSE 100 Index looks very bullish due to the reclaim of the 7,370 support level and the higher high on the daily chart. This move is expected to improve the market sentiment in the UK stocks in the coming days.
As a result, bulls may now target a retest downward trendline depicted in the chart below. A breakout beyond the downward trendline would most likely push the index toward the 200 MA level, which lies 2.3% above the current level.
Any FTSE100 index forecast is incomplete without mentioning an invalidation level. Therefore, if the index breaks below the 7,370 key support level, the bears can anticipate a 2.3% correction towards the August lows at 7,206 points.
FTSE 100 Index Technical Analysis
