Energy boss does not expect gas and electricity prices to return to pre-Ukraine invasion levels – business live

LIVE – Updated at 08:45 Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as Equinor chief executive says prices will rise amid

‘rewiring’ of energy system.   08:45 The FTSE 100’s three-year high was on Friday, at 7,864.95 points. Today’s trading has already come within a

whisker of that, at 7,863.51 points. What would it take to propel the FTSE 100 to a record high today? One possibility is higher oil prices, which would buoy BP and

Shell, the index’s two big fossil fuel companies. But oil prices are down today. Futures prices for Brent crude oil, the North Sea benchmark, are down by 1.3% to $84.10 a

barrel, while West Texas Intermediate, the North American benchmark, is down 1.2% at $78.83 a barrel. Those are still historically very high prices, but notably they

are still below the levels of late February 2022, when Vladimir Putin launched the full-on assault on Kyiv that caused prices to surge well over $100 a barrel.   08:32

The FTSE 100 has edged up this morning by 0.2% – or about 15 points. It has been a strong start to the year for London’s benchmark index. It has gained 5.5% in

2023 so far. At 7,858 points on Monday morning it is within touching distance of its record intraday high. That was 7,903 points set in May 2018, before it closed at

7844.07. It isn’t all a cheery message: the FTSE 100 has benefited from a weaker pound. But the index has been helped by slowing inflation, which could mean central banks

do not need to raise interest rates quite so quickly.