Wealth Management news

This bulletin provides you with an overview of the latest market news from around the world – world markets, key headlines, stocks and market data.

Early Trading

UK equities are expected to open higher this morning, after Greece submitted fresh reform proposals to its euro zone creditors, making substantial concessions in a bid to win new funds and avert bankruptcy.

World Markets

Asian stocks were mostly higher with Chinese equities continuing to rally, gaining momentum from Thursday’s rebound as government measures to support the volatile market start to have an impact.

US stocks advanced with global markets as Chinese equities rebounded the most since 2009, easing concern over economic growth.

UK stocks advanced for a second day as investors speculated that the fallout from Greece’s debt crisis can be contained and as a rebound in Chinese markets spurred gains in mining shares.

Headlines

In an 11th-hour bid to stay in the euro, the government of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras offered to meet most of the demands made by creditors in exchange for a bailout of €53.5 billion. The proposal submitted to European institutions late Thursday almost mirrored the one from creditors on June 26, which was rejected by voters in a July 5 referendum. The package of spending cuts, pension savings and tax increases will face its first hurdle in the Greek Parliament on Friday. Though Tsipras ceded ground, he insists long-term debt needs to be made more manageable to allow Greece to recover from a crisis that has erased a quarter of its economy.

New homes are fetching record prices in London even as the city’s wider housing market slows. The average sale price of brand-new properties in the UK capital breached £1,000 a square foot for the first time, according to property magazine Estates Gazette. Values rose 10.0% in the 12 months through March as developers built more homes in the most expensive areas including Kensington, Chelsea and Camden. “The ripple effect generated by the supercharged prime areas of the capital is pushing prices up on the fringes and on the fringe of the fringes,” said Nigel Evans, head of London residential research at Estates Gazette. “The number of super prime units may be small, but their effect is considerable.”

Stocks

AB Foods rose 5.08%, after it said it was on track to meet full-year profit forecasts. The company also said it planned to open a Primark store in Italy next year, which would be the 10th European market the chain has reached.

The British company Supergroup, which is behind the Superdry fashion brand, closed 7.74% up after reporting a 2% rise in full-year profits and signing a deal to take its clothes into China.

Shares in Barratt Developments rose 4.37% after it said full-year profits were better than expected. The house builder also said the cut in tax relief for buy-to-let investors announced on Wednesday’s Budget was unlikely to affect the housing market.

Apple Inc. shares fell 2%, knocking about 17 points off the Dow industrials index as investors worried that consumers in China might have less money to spend on iPhones.

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, the largest US drug store chain, jumped 4.24% after the company raised its full-year profit forecast.

Coty’s shares fell 4.7% after Procter & Gamble agreed to sell its beauty business to the company in a deal that values the business at $12.5 billion. P&G shares dipped 0.41%.