The FTSE 100 recovered to close marginally higher amid a positive session for consumer and pharmaceutical stocks. British American Tobacco helped drive the top index to gains as it was boosted by plans from the Trump administration to axe a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes and flavoured cigars in the US.
This helped to offset a weaker session for London’s commodity stocks. The FTSE 100 finished 1.36 points, or 0.02%, higher to end the day at 8,503.71. Stateside, tech firms plunged early in the session after a new Chinese competitor emerged in the artificial intelligence boom.
Axel Rudolph, senior technical analyst at IG, said: “China’s DeepSeek R1 AI, which surpassed ChatGPT as the top free app on the US App Store and apparently cost less than six million dollars to develop, made investors question lofty US tech valuations.
“Nvidia shares sank by 13%, erasing 465 billion dollars in market value. “Falling US Treasury yields and bargain hunters helped US indices recover with the Dow flatlining.”. Elsewhere in Europe, the other main markets were relatively downbeat, despite an improvement in business morale in Germany.
The Cac 40 ended 0.27% lower for the day and the Dax index was down 0.54%. In currency, sterling took a small step back in its recent recovery against the dollar at the start of a quiet week for economic data. The pound was down 0.07% at 1.247 US dollars and was flat at 1.189 euros when London’s markets closed.
