FTSE 100 boosted as oil majors and miners buoyed by rising crude prices
London’s FTSE 100 opened higher on Monday as gains for miners and oil majors buoyed the index.
The capital’s premier index was up one per cent after an extended weekend due to Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The mid-cap domestically-focused FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, opened 1.2 per cent up.
Jet and auto parts supplier Melrose Industries rose 3.3 per cent after it opted for a sale of its Ergotron division to private-equity firm The Sterling Group for £520m.
Among the big risers were oil majors BP and Shell, who were both up two per cent on Monday afternoon.
It comes as oil prices reached $120 a barrel after Saudi Arabia hiked crude prices for July.
“The bunting has stayed in position for the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 with a feel good factor rippling through the London market, as its resilience in the face of continued worries about inflation come to the fore,” Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst for Hargreaves Lansdown, said.
“The march upwards in the oil price will do little to calm the jitters about the spiralling higher of prices on the wider financial markets,” Streeter cautioned, off the back of better than expected jobs numbers in the US last week.
Covid vaccine maker Astrazeneca and distribution and outsourcing firm Bunzl were among the biggest fallers, both dropping more than one per cent.
Traders seem relatively uninterested in an anticipated vote of confidence in the UK Prime Minister later on Monday, against a backdrop of economic concerns.
“After the diversions of the Jubilee celebrations, a fresh round of belt tightening is likely, given the ongoing cost of living crisis, so more domestically focused consumer stocks, which don’t benefit from big brand pulling power, are facing uncertain times ahead,” Streeter warned.