FTSE 100 live: Rolls-Royce and Easyjet fly as food inflation and house prices dip

The news moving markets in London today: The capital’s premier bluechip index opened lower this morning, as Easyjet had a record summer, food inflation fell and London house sellers start discounting.

The FTSE 100 closed marginally lower at 7,455.24. The FTSE 250, which is more aligned with the UK domestic market, ended 0.28 per cent lower at around 18,387.00.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 and 250 indices this morning were Rolls-Royce and Easyjet, which both published positive reports this morning.

While fresh figures showed food inflation has sharply slowed, higher business rates and the increase in the national living wage could reverse progress, experts warned.

According to the latest reading from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), food inflation this month dropped to 7.8 per cent down from 8.8 per cent the prior month.

“Shop price inflation eased for the sixth month in a row as retailers competed fiercely to bring prices down for customers ahead of Christmas,” said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC.

“Retailers are committed to delivering an affordable Christmas for their customers. They face new headwinds in 2024 – from government-imposed increases in business rates bills, to the hidden costs of complying with new regulations. Combining these with the biggest rise to the National Living Wage on record will likely stall or even reverse progress made thus far on bringing down inflation, particularly in food.”

Meanwhile, the latest Zoopla house price report showed that although house prices declined two per cent year-on-year in November, the capital has remained the most expensive area in the UK to buy, with an average property price of £537k.

It added desperate London home sellers have been accepting average discounts of as much as £25k on asking prices as the property market seized up.

FTSE 100 news

The biggest mover in London’s blue-chip index was Rolls-Royce, which laid out its medium-term growth targets this morning ahead of its capital markets event later today.

The British company set out its bid to create “a high performing, competitive, resilient and growing business,” targeting an operating profit of £2.5bn to £2.8bn over the medium term.

At the close, the engine maker’s share price closed up by more than 6.0 per cent.

The rest of the FTSE 100 and 250 was broadly flat, with investors reacting strongly to Easyjet’s bumper profits announced this morning. The budget airline reported headline profit before tax of £445m for the twelve months ending 30 September, a £633m year-on-year improvement.

Its share price closed up around 3.4 per cent up this morning.