Highlights
- FTSE 100 up 104 points at 10,761
- IMF upgrades UK growth
Strong start
The FTSE 100 made a storming start as it added 104 points in the first 15 minutes of trading, shrugging off the tech-inspired meltdown in Asia earlier.
Elsewhere, the IMF has given the UK economy a modest lift, upgrading its 2026 growth forecast to 1.3% from 1%, but the small print is less cheerful.
Higher energy prices from the US-Iran conflict and rising long-term interest rates are expected to drag growth back to 1.2% in 2027, with inflation still above the Bank of England’s target.
The silver lining is on the fiscal side, with the IMF singling out Britain as a leader among G7 nations in bringing borrowing under control, which should give Chancellor Healey a degree of cover heading into his 28 October Budget.
Asia metldown
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 33 points higher on Tuesday, bucking a sharp sell-off across Asian markets after China's CXMT announced plans to launch server-grade DDR5 memory chips by year-end.
DDR5, or double data rate 5, is the latest generation of high-speed memory used in servers, PCs and AI infrastructure.
It offers roughly double the bandwidth of its predecessor, DDR4, making it critical for the artificial intelligence workloads that have driven chip demand over the past two years.
The market has until now been dominated by Micron, SK Hynix and Samsung.
CXMT's entry, using a 4F² cell architecture that packs more memory into a smaller physical space, signals that China is closing the gap in a technology the US has sought to restrict through export controls.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index tumbled 2.67% on Wall Street, with Micron falling 3.87% through the $1,000 level and SK Hynix ADRs dropping more than 4%.
The three main memory names shed around $108 billion in combined market capitalisation.
South Korea felt the sharpest pain, with the benchmark Kospi falling 6.9%, dragged by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which lost 8.2% and 9.1% respectively.
Japan's Nikkei was 2.5% lower by midday, while Taiwan's Taiex slipped 2.2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 1.2%.
Geopolitical nerves added to the pressure, with conflict escalating in Ukraine and Houthi militants striking Riyadh's international airport, killing at least 13 people.
Investors now look to earnings from ASML and TSMC later this week for clues on the sector's direction.
