Oil price rise, strong US markets and weak pound boost FTSE
The FTSE 100 closed 51.05 points, or 0.71%, higher at 7,288.62 on Monday.
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Your support makes all the difference.The FTSE climbed higher as a recovery in oil prices, strong Wall Street opening and weak pound all helped London firms in the afternoon session.
While world leaders descended on Glasgow for Cop26 oil prices continued to buoy the markets by rebounding despite Opec+ releasing another 400,000 barrels a day onto the global market.
Resource and oil firms were therefore among the day’s winners, helping to offset a heavy slump in value by Darktrace as investors in the cyber business got the jitters.
The FTSE 100 closed 51.05 points, or 0.71%, higher at 7,288.62 on Monday.
The price of oil started marching back towards the three-year highs it hit last month, as Brent crude rose by 1.06% to 84.61 dollars per barrel.
London’s biggest multinational firms also benefited from weakness in the value of the pound ahead of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee later this week.
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: “Even a rate hike from the Bank of England this week shouldn’t provoke too much excitement, and it will be a while before the next one.
“The recent fading of the pound’s rally against the dollar points towards the view that a rate increase has been firmly priced in.”
Sterling dropped against a dollar which was itself weak against many of the world’s key currencies.
The pound was 0.12% lower versus the US dollar at 1.366, and down 0.15% against the euro at 1.178.
Across Europe, the other major markets also made positive strides as the German Dax increased by 0.76%, as the French Cac declined by 0.96%.
In the US, the markets picked up where they left off on Friday to bounce to record highs ahead of Tuesday’s Federal Reserve meeting.
In company news, Barclays finished lower after its boss Jes Staley quit following the preliminary findings of an investigation into his role as private banker to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A report by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) is due next month, with a first draft sent to Mr Staley last Friday.
Shares dropped by 1.4p to 200.85p after the departure of the CEO.
BT bounced higher after the telecoms giant confirmed that it has hit its £1 billion cost-saving target 18 months ahead of the schedule.
Shares in the business rose by 6.1p to 145p after it confirmed newspaper reports, amid speculation that UK company is preparing itself for a takeover attempt by French telecoms tycoon Patrick Drahi from next month.
Cybersecurity business Darktrace tumbled to the foot of the FTSE 100 after analysts raised doubts over the firm’s valuation and the lock-up on insiders expires, allowing them to sell their stakes.
Shares dropped by 121p at 681.5p as a result.
Fevertree Drinks saw shares rise by 102p to 2,371p after the tonic maker saw Deutsche Bank analyst hike their target price for the stock to 3,300p as they hailed its growth potential.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were BT, up 6.1p at 145p, Next, up 218p at 8,184p, Fresnillo, up 22.2p at 885.4p, and Pearson, up 14.6p at 617p.
The biggest fallers of the day were Darktrace, 121p at 681.5p, Barratt, down 19.2p at 643.8p, Ocado, down 48p at 1,755p, and Taylor Wimpey, down 3.95p at 150.6p.