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FTSE 100 Live: Tesco shares rally; OpenAI nets $500bn price tag

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The Morning Wire Live Blog
The Morning Wire FTSE 100 liveblog with your top market stories.

Good morning from the Morning Wire liveblog team.

The FTSE 100 is leading the City higher this morning as it continues to build on records sealed earlier in the week. The index rose 0.2 per cent to 9,464.91 this morning, following on from yesterday’s gains. Also continuing its rally was gold, propelled on by the US government shutdown.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “London’s blue-chip index is on a prescription for success, extending all-time highs after yesterday’s dose of pharma strength led to the FTSE 100’s best session since July.

“Pharma stocks were the standout, racing higher on news that Pfizer struck a deal with the US administration to slash drug prices and bypass tariffs. The move provided long-awaited clarity on pricing and lifted hopes that others could follow.”

After suffering one of the most dismal nine-month spells in decades, the City was also looking to what could be a fourth-quarter revival for the London Stock Exchange’s IPO pipeline.

Today we’re expecting the dual listing of energy real estate business Fermi, which is also listing in New York. And British bank Shawbrook is to lay out plans for its much-anticipated IPO. Have we reached a turning point?

The government appears to be aware London’s IPO drought is a problem, and there are now mutterings that the Treasury is going to offer a stamp duty holiday to newly-listed companies, likely to apply for a period of two to three years, to make the market more competitive internationally. That’s only a tax cut of 0.5 per cent to share trades, but it could make a big difference to encouraging more investment into equities.

Here’s a summary of our top headlines from yesterday: