The main index in London continued to recover from the three-month lows it reached earlier this week to end Friday with a convincing performance. As the Nasdaq in New York reached a new record, the FTSE 100 pushed back up, though it remains more than 150 points off its recent highs, and is far from setting records. The index was driven higher by news from NatWest and Vodafone, but was held back by mining giants Fresnillo and Polymetal. NatWest topped the FTSE 100 for much of the day on the news that it had accelerated its exit from Ireland with a deal to sell off much of its loan book to an Irish bank. It was tailed by Vodafone, which reported revenues at 11.1 billion euros (£9.5 billion) for the first three months of the financial year.

Source: Irish Independent July 23, 2021 16:07 UTC