Packaging firms Mondi and DS Smith are also among top performers, boosted by peer Smurfit Kappa after it announced that it expects margin improvement in 2022. The biggest fallers are in the banking sector, including Standard Chartered and HSBC.

Pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline recorded a rise in net profit and revenues for Q4 2021. Shares in Barratt Developments gained 3% after it released an upbeat guidance.

On Friday, the Office for National Statistics will publish the first estimate of Q4 2021 real GDP. According to Berenberg, it is likely to show that the UK economy grew by an inflation-adjusted 7.3% in 2021 – well above the January 2021 Bloomberg consensus of 4.7%.

 

Things to read today:

Australia’s largest pension fund to pour £23bn into UK and Europe (Financial Times)

U.S. Seizes $3.6 Billion in Bitcoin Stolen in 2016 Hack (WSJ)