Vodafone soars (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - London, 07 Aug - Shares in London closed higher after data showed that the economy grew at a faster than expected pace.

In its annual revision of historical data, the Office of National Statistics said that GDP grew by 4.8% in 2022 instead of 4.3%.

GDP growth in 2021 was revised a little lower while the deep slump in 2020 was less severe than previously reported.

Also helping, recent market volatility receded after Bank of Japan vice governor Uchida Shinichi said the BoJ will not raise rates if the markets don't stabilise. This come after the BoJ's hawkish pivot caused a major unwind of the yen carry trade that had been used to finance the acquisition of stocks for years.

In 'carry trades', investors borrow money from economies with low interest rates such as Japan or Switzerland, to fund investments in higher-yielding assets, such as stocks, elsewhere.

Also on the data front, UK house prices rose 0.8% month on month and increased 2.3% year on year in July, the strongest increase since January 2024, according to the bank Halifax.

Homebuilders were mostly higher with Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey adding 2.46% at 1,538.50 pence and 1.28% at 153.95 pence, respectively.

Among individual stocks, Coca-Cola HBC fell 1.53% at 2,698.00 pence after the bottler signalled headwinds in the second half of 2024.

Glencore gained 2.81% at 404.20 pence after the miner said it would not spinoff its coal business.

Vodafone jumped 3.92% at 73.20 pence after the telecoms giant announced a new 500 million dollar share buyback program.

The London FTSE 100 closed up 1.75% at 8,166.88 points.

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(RADIOCOR) 07-08-24 18:18:19 (0592) 5 NNNN