Strota/ Newsroom/ Global Markets/ 2026-08-04

FTSE 100 edged up 0.3% to a 52-week high

Strota Newsroom · Global Markets · session of 2026-08-04 · market close

FTSE 100 closed at 10,898.91 on 2026-08-04, edged up 0.3% on the session and is +9.7% year-to-date. Here is what the market data shows.

The FTSE 100 finished its most recent session at 10,868.1, a decline of 0.27% on the day. It was a small step back for the UK blue-chip benchmark rather than a sell-off, and the last recorded close was dated 31 July 2026.

The pullback barely dented the trend. The index sat just 0.39% below its 52-week high of 10,910.6 and 19.49% above its 52-week low of 9,095.7, so the fall left it within touching distance of the top of its own one-year range. It also closed above both of the moving averages tracked in the data — the 50-day average at 10,521.57 and the 200-day average at 10,214.9, which smooth out daily noise to show the shorter- and longer-run drift. Over the past week the index was up 1.23%, over a month 2.02%, over three months 4.86%, and 9.43% for the year to date.

Peer markets do not share the same closing date, because exchanges finish their trading days at different hours, so these are each market's latest close rather than one synchronised session. On the same date as the FTSE 100's close, Germany's DAX added 0.07%, France's CAC 40 rose 0.28%, the Euro Stoxx 50 gained 0.21%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged up 0.1%, Shanghai climbed 0.72%, Taiwan's TAIEX jumped 7.98%, and India's Sensex and Nifty 50 rose 0.21% and 0.27%. Later closes were more scattered: as of 3 August the S&P 500 was up 1.48%, the Nasdaq 2.13% and the Dow 1.32%, while as of 4 August the Nikkei had dropped 1.81% and South Korea's KOSPI 6.49%, with Australia's ASX 200 up 0.98%.

On the news side, a Reuters headline attributed the dip to AstraZeneca sliding amid reported tie-up talks with Bristol Myers, and Share Talk and marketscreener.com carried headlines pointing the same way, framing a single large-cap drug maker as the drag on an otherwise steady market. An Investing.com headline described the index brushing off soft PMI survey data — a monthly gauge of business activity — as relief on Iran supported risk appetite. From a few days earlier, the Financial Times reported the FTSE 100 reaching an all-time high, describing it as an index light on technology at a moment when chip shares were being sold globally, while fidelity.co.uk listed reasons behind that record. A Morningstar piece asked why the UK market is shrinking.

None of that is confirmed by the numbers in this pack, which contain no company-level or sector data. The headlines name a cause; the price data only establishes a modest decline that left the index near the upper end of its 52-week range and above both moving averages.

The numbers

Around the world (same session)

Recent headlines

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How this article was made: Strota assembled the market data above (the index's price history, same-session peer-market moves and public headlines) and an AI model wrote the narrative strictly from that evidence — it is not permitted to add outside facts or numbers. Every figure comes from the underlying market/public data.