Time to wrap up…The FTSE 100 hit the 10,000 point milestone for the first time, after finishing its best year of gains since 2009.The FTSE 100 jumped on Friday morning to a high of 10,046, a new peak for the index, before easing back slightly.The milestone marks a stellar 12 months for the “Footsie”, which rose by 21.5% over the course of last year.The Chinese car-maker BYD has overtaken Tesla as the top seller of electric cars around the world.

Tesla delivered 1.64 million cars in 2025, down 9% from 2024, it said on Friday.Meanwhile the Shenzhen-based BYD sold 2.26 million electric cars in 2025, up 28% compared with the year earlier after an aggressive expansion push in Europe.UK house prices unexpectedly fell in December after a ‘soft’ month, the lender Nationwide said.

The average property price slumped by 0.4% to £271,068 compared with November, according to Nationwide, confounding City forecasts of a 0.1% rise.The UK’s biggest building society also said that the rate of annual house price growth slowed to 0.6% in December, the weakest year-on-year reading since April 2024.

Uber rewrites contracts with drivers to avoid paying UK’s new ‘taxi tax’Uber has swerved paying millions of pounds to the UK exchequer under Rachel Reeves’s new “taxi tax” after the ride-hailing app rewrote contracts with its drivers.The Chinese car company BYD has officially overtaken Tesla as the top seller of electric cars in the world.The latest figures from Tesla show it delivered 1.64 million cars in 2025, down 9% from 2024.It compares with 2.

26 million electric cars sold by BYD in 2025, up 28% compared with the year earlier after an aggressive expansion push in Europe.Earlier this week Tesla took the unusual step of publishing sales forecasts before its official figures, in an apparent move to manage market expectations.Investors in Tesla are hoping that chief executive Elon Musk, who has an estimated fortune of $623bn, will be able to turn the company into a leader across self-driving technology, robotics and AI.Uber has swerved paying millions of pounds to the UK exchequer under Rachel Reeves’s new “taxi tax” after the ride-hailing app rewrote contracts with its drivers.The move came as rules announced in November’s budget took effect, which adjusted how VAT is payable on minicab fares and would have resulted in the whole Uber fare becoming subject to the 20% sales tax.

In November, Reeves told the Commons the changes would end up “protecting around £700m of tax revenue each year”.However, updated terms issued to Uber drivers from January 2026 mean the technology firm will act as an agent, rather than as the supplier, of transport services outside London.The move means drivers make a contract directly with their passengers – so they must charge any VAT due on the fare, while Uber only adds VAT to its commission.As most drivers are not thought to be making more than £90,000 in bookings a year, and therefore do not have to charge VAT, the majority of Uber fares outside London will avoid becoming more expensive, since the 20% sales tax will not apply.BYD is poised to overtake Tesla as the world’s biggest electric car company, as more drivers turn to cheaper Chinese models.

BYD, which is headquartered in Shenzhen, sold 2,26 million electric cars in 2025, up by almost 28% compared with 2024, it said on Thursday,Meanwhile Tesla, which will report its figures later today, is expected to have delivered 1,64 million vehicles in 2025, which would represent a fall of 8,4% compared with the year prior.

Tesla sales have faltered in Europe due to growing competition and some backlash against chief executive Elon Musk’s embrace of rightwing politics,Musk, who is the world’s richest man, claimed at a shareholder meeting in November that the company was aiming to produce 4m cars a year by the end of 2027,The FTSE 100 is still trading slightly below the 10,000 mark, having surpassed it earlier this morning,But chancellor Rachel Reeves has weighed in on the UK’s stock market rise this morning,The FTSE 100 breaking through 10,000 points for the first time is a vote of confidence in Britain’s economy and a strong start to 2026.

https://t.co/eojmiaon9wWhile the FTSE 100 is the main stock index in London, it has a strong international focus, containing mining companies such as Rio Tinto and Anglo American and the oil groups BP and Shell.Most of the revenue that the FTSE 100 group generates comes from overseas.The US government has slashed proposed tariffs on Italian pasta that would have almost doubled the cost of many brands for shoppers.Donald Trump had threatened to impose tariffs as high as 92% on Italian pasta companies, after accusing 13 producers including Barilla, La Molisana and Pastificio Lucio Garofalo of selling their products at unfairly low prices.

Italy is estimated to be responsible for $770m-worth (approximately £570m) of annual pasta sales to the US.On Thursday, Italy’s government said the US Department of Commerce (DoC) had reviewed the proposed tariffs and reduced them to a range of between 2% and 14%.Any additional duties on the Italian pasta makers will come on top of the 15% tariff that Trump has placed on most goods imported from the EU into the US.The FTSE 100 has fallen back slightly from its 10,000 point milestone, now up 0.42% at 9,973 points.

But Alex Rudolph, an analyst at the trading platform IG, says the record earlier this morning is still a powerful signal for UK markets.While the index’s recent outperformance may become choppier in 2026, it remains fundamentally supported by globally diversified earnings, strong cash generation and the prospect of a more accommodative Bank of England, suggesting the trend is sustainable even if gains moderate compared to 2025’s over 20% advance.The FTSE 100’s new year rally has helped the pan-European Stoxx 600 index hit a fresh record high this morning.The index, which tracks the biggest companies on the continent, rose by as much as 0.6% this morning to 596.

94 points, hovering around the 600 point milestone.Markets in Asia were also strong overnight, with shares in Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore hitting record highs.In India, the Nifty 50 index hit a fresh high of 26,340.Markets in China and Japan were closed.Brighton’s historic Palace Pier has been put up for sale after a decline in tourist numbers, a drop in profits and increase in costs in recent years.

The leisure group that owns the 126-year-old structure, which has appeared in famous films including Brighton Rock and Quadrophenia, said it hoped to find a new owner by the summer.“This is more than just the sale of an asset,” said Anne Ackord, the chief executive of Brighton Pier Group (BPG).It is an opportunity to become part of the next chapter in a remarkable story and shape the future of this national treasure.The Grade II-listed pier, which opened in 1899 after three years of construction, was acquired by BPG for £18m in 2016.The UK’s manufacturing sector grew at its fastest pace in 15 months in December, according to the latest reading from S&P Global’s purchasing managers’ index.

The index rose to 50.6 in December, up from 50.2 in November, but below an initial reading for December of 51.2.Rob Dobson, director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said factories had been helped by the end of uncertainty about the budget, as well as the carmaker Jaguar Land Rover reopening its facilities after a cyber-attack shutdown.

He said:The start of 2026 will show if growth can be sustained after these temporary boosts subside.The base of the expansion needs to shift more towards rising demand and away from inventory building and backlog clearance.December’s interest rate cut will hopefully play some part in assisting this transition, encouraging manufacturers and their customers to increase spending and investment.Manufacturers remain uncertain on this score, with business optimism falling for the first time in three months in December.The FTSE 100’s 10,000 milestone represents the fastest ever rise between 1,000 intervals ever for the blue-chip index, the investment broker AJ Bell has said.

Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, says it has only been 171 days since the FTSE hit the 9,000 point mark.Previously, the fastest jump in blocks of 1,000 happened when the FTSE 100 went from 5,000 to 6,000, which took 229 days in the late 90s.The longest period was 6,206 days between hitting 6,000 in March 1998 and 7,000 in 2015.Admittedly, that period included a global financial crisis, so it was unusual times.”The FTSE 100 also managed to beat the US blue-chip index last year, the S&P 500, as some investors stateside started to get nervous about the future of tech stocks.

Coatsworth adds:Investors have faced considerable uncertainty, and many have looked away from the US for opportunities.They’ve focused on cheaper areas of the market, of which the UK is one …We’ve seen increased interest from foreign investors looking to diversify their holdings and the FTSE 100 has also shone during the more tumultuous periods thanks to its plethora of defensive-style companies …Lots of people have criticised the UK for being an old economy market, full of boring companies in the banking and natural resources sector.Yes, it lacks the excitement of go-go-growth stocks omnipresent in the US, but boring can also be beautiful when it comes to investing.The UK is a rich hunting ground for dividends, and it is also full of companies that have slow but steady growth and which are under appreciated engines for wealth creation.”The FTSE 100 index has just hit a new high of 10,000 points for the first time, after a bumper year in the UK stock market.

Britain’s stock market increased in value by a fifth in 2025, its biggest annual gain since 2009,The miner Fresnillo was its best performer in 2025, with shares up by 450%, thanks to record prices for gold and silver,Defence companies have also contributed to the FTSE 100’s rally,About 75% of the FTSE 100’s earnings come from overseas, which means the index is a gauge of global economic prospects, rather than investor confidence in the health of the UK economy,The UK’s blue chip FTSE 100 index is up slightly by 0.

19% as the market opens for its first trading day of 2026,Miners are among the best performers across the index, with Fresnillo leading the pack, up 4%,The mid-cap FTSE 250 index is also rising this morning, up 0,18%,Over in Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 index has risen by 0.

27%.House prices faltered slightly in December, but overall the UK’s property market was resilient in 2025, Nationwide says.Robert Gardner said:Despite the softer end to the year, the word that best describes the housing market in 2025 overall is ‘resilient’.Even though consumer sentiment was relatively subdued, with households reluctant to spend and mortgage rates around three times their post pandemic lows, mortgage approvals remained near pre-Covid levels.Stamp duty changes that took effect at the beginning of April created volatility through the spring and summer.

Activity spiked in March as purchasers brought forward transactions to avoid paying additional tax and this led to some softness in the following months.However, the underlying picture was little changed as demand held up well throughout.Looking ahead to 2026, Nationwide now expects that annual house price growth will be in the range of 2% to 4%, as income growth is forecast to outpace house price growth, and economists expect a modest decline in interest rates.Gardner adds the changes to property taxes announced in the government’s last budget are “unlikely” to have a significant impact on the market.The high value council tax surcharge is not being introduced until April 2028 and will apply to less than 1% of properties in England and around 3% in London.

The increase in taxes on income from properties may dampen buy-to-let activity further and hold down the supply of new rental properties coming onto the market, which could, in turn, maintain some upward pressure on private rental growth.”Amy Reynolds, head of sales at the estate agency Antony Roberts in Richmond, said the expectation of continued lower mortgage rates should help restore buyer confidence this year.There is more optimism and a feeling of relief now that the budget is over.We do not expect huge price rises and a racing market, more a return to the normal pre-budget market which has been on hiatus while everyone waited to see what the government would roll out.”Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

UK house prices dropped unexpectedly by 0.4% in December, according to the latest figures from the lender Nationwide Building Society.It found that house prices fell slightly in December compared with November, ending the year just 0.6% higher compared with the year before.Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.

1% monthly rise, with an annual change of 1.2%.Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said:UK house prices ended 2025 on a softer note, with annual price growth slowing to 0.6%, from 1.8% in November, the slowest pace since April 2024