City Confidential

17 February 2026

So yet another record for the FTSE 100 yesterday, albeit just, with the index closing at 10,473.69, just 1.58 points above the previous record set last week.  An interesting point to note in this rise is the strength of utility stocks with the likes of United Utilities and National Grid being very strong and hitting all-time highs.  In fact the latter has now seen its shares rise for 12 consecutive days to 1373p the highest it has ever been by some way.  Odd that defensive stocks are so strong when the underlying market is too!  Shares in National Grid now only yield 3.5% which is historically very low and we therefore expect this recent rise in the share price to run out of steam.