New York (AFP) – Stock markets mostly rose on Friday, the first trading day of 2026, with London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index reaching 10,000 points for the first time. After indices smashed records in 2025, ending with double-digit annual gains, London continued the trend in early new year deals. The capital’s top-tier index — featuring the likes of energy group BP, telecoms firm Vodafone and banking giant HSBC — gained more than one percent to reach an all-time high of 10,046.25 points soon after the start of trading Friday. It gave up much of its gains but still ended the day up 0.2 percent to set a fresh closing record.
“The FTSE 100 hit the 10,000 jackpot level immediately after rounding off a tremendous year for UK shares,” noted Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell trading group. The index climbed more than 21 percent in 2025, the biggest rise for 16 years, helped in large part by cuts to British interest rates alongside reductions to borrowing costs by the US Federal Reserve as global inflation largely retreated. Helping the FTSE 100 to its new record Friday was another solid gain to the share price of gold miner Fresnillo, whose stock rocketed 436 percent last year as the precious metal’s price struck multiple record highs.
Paris and Frankfurt also rose on Friday after Hong Kong led Asian gains, closing up 2.8 percent. Wall Street’s major indices mostly closed higher, with the broad-based S&P 500 up 0.2 percent and the Dow adding 0.7 percent. “AI-related names have been at the forefront of today’s strength in international markets, drawing support from news that Baidu’s chip unit filed for an IPO in Hong Kong,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.
Also on Friday on the Hong Kong stock exchange, shares in Chinese chip designer Biren Technology soared as much as 119 percent in the exchange’s first listing of the year. It closed at HK$34.46, off its intra-day high of HK$42.88 but well up on its offer price of HK$19.60. The Shanghai-based firm’s listing raised more than $700 million, suggesting that investor appetite for anything related to AI remains insatiable. “The industry is in a flourishing stage, with many firms striving for breakthroughs and significant growth potential,” said Kenny Ng, a strategist at China Everbright Securities.
The surge in the tech sector on vast amounts of cash pumped into artificial intelligence helped push stock markets to record highs last year, and propelled AI chip juggernaut Nvidia to become the world’s first $5 trillion company. Concerns that valuations of AI stocks are too high, however, gnawed at investors late in 2025. Briefing.com’s O’Hare said Friday’s “news should be encouraging to investors who are worried that overall AI investment could be on the verge of stalling or turning.”
Shares in Tesla dropped 2.6 percent on Wall Street after the company ceded the title of the world’s biggest electric vehicle maker to Chinese auto giant BYD for 2025. Oil prices slid, having lost nearly 20 percent last year on an oversupplied market.
– Key figures at around 2100 GMT –
New York – Dow: UP 0.7 percent at 48,382.39 points (close)
New York – S&P 500: UP 0.2 percent at 6,858.47 (close)
New York – Nasdaq Composite: FLAT at 23,235.63 (close)
London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 9,951.14 (close)
Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.6 percent at 8,195.21 (close)
Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.2 percent at 24,539.34 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 2.8 percent at 26,338.47 (close)
Shanghai – market closed for holiday
Tokyo – market closed for holiday
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1720 from $1.1750 on Wednesday
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3460 from $1.3478
Dollar/yen: UP at 156.85 yen from 156.66 yen
Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.07 pence from 87.18 pence
Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.2 percent at $60.75 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.2 percent at $57.30 per barrel
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© 2024 AFP
