FTSE jumps past 7000 as China’s economy surges 18.3% and cryptocurrency fever

The Market Report with Katie Pilbeam. FTSE 100 crossed the 7,000 mark at open, buoyed by optimism in Asia after China’s economy surged 18.3% in the first quarter. London’s main index jumped 35 points to 7,018 in early trading.

Cryptocurrency fever is breaking out everywhere following the listing of exchange Coinbase this week.  Dogecoin, which reportedly was started as joke, jumped 91% in value overnight as Elon Musk posted another obscure tweet about the crypto.

 () made a strong start to life as a listed company as its shares began trading on the Aquis Exchange. The company is the first exclusively focused on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to launch on a stock market in a major jurisdiction. In the mainstream, fund manager

Ashmore PLC () reported a tough period for debt and fixed income products in the three months to end-March. Assets under management fell by US$3.1bn to US$89.9bn.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock owns shares in a company that won a £300,000 contract with the NHS this year, it has emerged. His sister Emily Gilruth also owns a stake and is a director of the firm, called Topwood.

 () has secured its first large-scale pharma services contract for cancer cell collection system Parsortix. The customer, said to be a pharma company with several cancer drugs under development, will use Parsortix in three separate global clinical trials.

 () highlighted favourable results from the restart of underground mining in Northern Ireland. Blasting resumed in March and, as expected, the development of the Kearney vein has produced a feed of higher gold grade ore for processing.