Pound: Index and Ftse

pound: Friday was the biggest day of trading on the FTSE 100 the index of Britain's biggest listed businesses since June 2017 as more than double the usual number of shares changed hands, according to The Guardian. The pound initially rose by more than two cents against the dollar to above 1.35, before paring some of those gains to trade at about 1.33 late on Friday as traders digested the Tory victory. Shares in companies that had been earmarked by the Labour party for nationalisation, including energy and utility firms, rallied after voters opted to back another five years of Tory government. The euro also rallied by a similar amount, before slipping back slightly to trade around 1.20. British billionaires, including high-profile Brexit backers and Tory donors, had a bumper day, as the FTSE 100 closed up by more than 1% on Friday and the more domestically focused FTSE 250 surged by about 3.5%. The combined value of the biggest 350 companies rose by about 33bn as stocks rallied on the election result, while the rising chance of a resolution in the US-China trade war also buoyed equities. Market watchers in the City of London viewed the result as positive because it ended parliamentary gridlock and the risk of a disorderly Brexit, while avoiding the Labour party's plans for a comprehensive restructuring of the UK business landscape. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.