LONDON MARKETS: FTSE 100 Rallies, Tracking Upbeat Wall Street Session
August 07 2018 - 5:42AM
Dow Jones News
By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
Commodity-related stocks help drive gains
The U.K.'s main stock benchmark pushed higher Tuesday, inspired
by gains for Asia and after an upbeat session on Wall Street, with
commodity-related stocks taking the lead.
How markets are performing
The FTSE 100 rose 0.7% to 7,714.36, after closing up by less
than 0.1% to end at 7,663.78 on Monday.
The pound was buying $1.2967, up from $1.2942 late Monday in New
York. Sterling was bruised Monday after Liam Fox, the U.K.'s
international trade secretary, said in a weekend interview
(https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/liam-fox-says-there-is-a-6040-chance-of-no-dealbrexit-lpsgm2gdf)
that there's a 60% chance the country will crash out of the
European Union without a deal with the bloc.
What's moving markets
U.K. stocks and other assets perceived as risky were getting a
boost after the S&P 500 brushed off trade jitters Monday
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-futures-wobble-as-trade-worries-rumble-on-2018-08-06)
to close just shy of a record close reached in late January. The
index still gained just 0.4% on the session, though.
Given the heavy representation of commodity stocks in London's
benchmark, higher materials prices also gave the U.K. index a
boost, with copper and platinum prices climbing. Oil prices added
to Monday's gains, inspired in part by the reimposition of U.S.
sanctions on Iran, something that could block crude exports from
the country.
Don't miss:A top London startup's CEO flags the biggest Brexit
threat to his industry
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-top-london-startups-ceo-flags-the-biggest-brexit-threat-to-his-industry-2018-08-06)
Global trade tensions hovered in the backdrop as China kept up
its war of words with the U.S., with a late Monday editorial in
China's People's Daily
(http://en.people.cn/n3/2018/0806/c90000-9488193.html) saying the
country won't give in to "trade blackmail." China threatened
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-threatens-new-tariffs-on-60-billion-of-us-products-2018-08-03)
to place tariffs on $60 billion of American goods last week if the
White House goes ahead with its plans to impose new levies on
Chinese products.
What are strategists saying?
"With copper up 0.7% the likes of Rio Tinto and Anglo American
rose anywhere between 1.3% and 2%, " said Connor Campbell,
financial analyst at Spreadex, in a note to clients.
"BP and Shell jumped 0.8% and 0.5%, respectively, as Brent crude
crossed $74 per barrel following the resumption of the USA's
sanctions on Iran," he added.
Stocks in focus
Among heavily weighted commodity shares, BP PLC(BP.LN) (BP.LN)
rose 1.5%, while Rio Tinto PLC (RIO.LN) (RIO.LN) gained 1.9% and
BHP Billiton Ltd. (BLT.LN) (BHP.AU) jumped 2.3%.
Shares of investment company Standard Life Aberdeen PLC(SLA.LN)
rose 2.6% after posted results and said it would launch a share
buyback plan worth 1.75 billion pounds
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/standard-life-aberdeen-operating-profit-falls-8-2018-08-07)
($2.27 billion) in the next few days.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 07, 2018 05:27 ET (09:27 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
FTSE 100
Index Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
FTSE 100
Index Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024