Business news live: FTSE 100 close to record high as stock markets open

Two days of talking in London has seen Washington and Beijing reach an agreement of sorts over a trade truce.

The US and China have agreed “in principle” over a framework and how to implement it.

That led to Asian markets rising overnight, the Hang Seng up 0.77% and the Nikkei 225 rising 0.55%.

US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said: “The idea is we’re going to go back and speak to President Trump and make sure he approves it. They’re going to go back and speak to President Xi and make sure he approves it, and if that is approved, we will then implement the framework.”

A new type of stock market will open in the UK later this year, allowing investors to trade shares in privately-owned companies — as opposed to those that are publicly owned and listed, for example on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Referred to as Pisces — which stands for a Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System — the first trading could begin on the new stock market in the next few months after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) approved the rules around it.

The FCA hopes the move will support the UK economy by giving more choices to the investment community and attracting new funds for growing businesses.

Although Pisces has already officially launched, trading cannot begin until companies who will act as operators start their platforms, which are subject to licences.

With more companies choosing to stay private for longer, the new trading system was created to give investors access to businesses they otherwise could not fund, and to allow those holding shares in private businesses the chance to cash out.

That can be as a result of shares being given as part of an employment package, for example, or by being an investor in an earlier round of private fundraising — which isn’t always accessible to private investors.

Evri’s deal to merge with rival DHL’s UK parcel arm is being investigated by the UK competition watchdog as the tie-up promises to create one of the UK’s largest delivery firms.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it will look into whether the deal could “result in a substantial lessening of competition” in the postal delivery sector.

It is initially gathering comments on the tie-up, with a deadline for submissions of June 25, before formally launching its investigation.

The FTSE 100 has opened slightly in the green this morning, up 0.2 per cent thanks to a few of the financials starting strongly. Lloyds, Standard Chartered and Prudential lead the way, the latter up 2.3pc.

On the continent, France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX are both up around 0.16pc, with the Euro Stoxx 50 basically flat.

Here’s a run-down of the headline events worth watching out for across the coming hours.

Wednesday financials are coming from (among others) Frontier Developments, Ibstock, Worldwide Healthcare Trust and Revolution Beauty.

The latter is notable as Frasers owner Mike Ashley has signalled that if a bid is forthcoming for Revolution Beauty, it will be an all-cash offer.

Its market value is now around £20m after a big slump this year.

Rachel Reeves’ spending review is the big focus of businesses and taxpayers alike today too – that’s coming at 12.30pm with a Treasury briefing sometime after 1pm.

We’ll also bring you the latest on currency exchanges, commodities and of course how the major markets are doing.

On Tuesday, the FTSE 100 closed at 8853.08p – just shy of the all time high set in March, of 8871.31p.

The index did push beyond that mark during the day, before falling back somewhat in the late afternoon.

Perhaps today will be see the new high ushered in – but there’s lots to digest across the day before that’s the case.

Good morning and welcome to our new live blog coverage of the UK’s business and stock markets news.

Every weekday, we’ll be bringing you market reaction, share price changes, company news and everything related to business and finance around the UK.