Balfour Beatty PLC

“There was a considerable amount of relief on the markets after Rachel Reeves’ Budget wasn’t as punishing as expected,” says Dan Coatsworth, Investment Analyst at AJ Bell. “However, there is a real risk the party candles quickly fizzle out as businesses add up the extra costs from changes to employer National Insurance, employment rights and a higher minimum wage. These issues threaten to dampen corporate profit margins unless companies simply pass on these extra costs to the end customer.

“A pick-up in the UK economy and a rally in US tech shares on Wall Street last night helped to sustain the positive momentum on the markets,” says Russ Mould, Investment Director at AJ Bell. “In line with the consensus estimate, UK GDP grew by 0.2% in January thanks to expansion in the services sector. “While the figure is tiny, the fact it is growing at all is a positive.

“The FTSE 100 ticked higher on Monday without suggesting it would threaten the all-time high which it briefly flirted with before a sell-off at the end of last week,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould. “The big economic announcements come on Thursday and Friday as the US releases GDP figures for the fourth quarter and core inflation numbers from the world’s largest economy are also released.