London stocks finished in a mixed state on Tuesday, helped along by well-received earnings from the likes of BHP and Just Eat, as investors digested the latest United Kingdom jobs data.
IG senior market analyst Joshua Mahony was quoted as saying by Sharecast, “Today has seen markets cool on the idea that the Australian and New Zealand central banks will soon embark on a round of monetary tightening, with lockdown measures across both countries highlighting the economic risk that remains despite relatively low Covid cases.
On the economic front, UK job vacancies hit a record high in the May-to-July period amid staff shortages in many industries. The data showed that the number of payroll employees rose 182,000 to 28.9 million in July, although it remained 201,000 below pre-COVID-19 levels.Average weekly pay growth rose to 8.8 per cent in June from 7.4 per cent in May, hitting the highest level since the series began in 2001 and coming in above the Bank of England’s forecast of 8.5 per cent.
In equity markets, BHP Group closed up 3.4 per cent after reportedly agreeing to sell its petroleum business to Australia’s Woodside Petroleum, and posting a 42 per cent jump in full-year net profit.