(Reuters) -London stocks closed higher on Monday, led by miners, after U.S. President Donald Trump softened his rhetoric on trade tensions with China, worries about which had sparked a sharp selloff on Friday.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 gained 0.16%, having dropped 0.9% in the previous session after Trump threatened 100% tariffs on Chinese imports, reigniting fears of a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
However, over the weekend, Trump struck a more conciliatory tone, posting that “it will all be fine” and that the U.S. had no intention to “hurt” China.
Precious metal miners outperformed peers in the market, closing up nearly 10% as gold broke through $4,100 per ounce for the first time on Monday. [GOL/]
Fresnillo and Endeavour were the top gainers in the FTSE 100, rising 9.1% and 11.3% respectively.
Industrial metal miners gained 3.1%, tracking increases in copper prices. [MET/L]
Mining heavyweights Anglo American, Glencore and Rio Tinto rose between 2% and 4.1%, helping lift the blue-chip index further.
Investor sentiment was lifted further after Bank of England policymaker Megan Greene, who joined most members of the Monetary Policy Committee in voting to keep the central bank rate at 4% last month, said interest rates would probably fall further.
However, she cautioned that the broad weakening of inflation pressures in Britain might be slowing.
Meanwhile, the latest round of mergers and acquisitions lifted some mid-cap stocks, with the broader FTSE 250 index up 1.2%.
U.S. private equity giant Blackstone said it was in the early stages of considering a cash offer for Big Yellow Group, sending the self-storage firm’s shares up 15.4%.
Rival Safestore also climbed 9.4% on the news.
Tritax Big Box added nearly 3.8% after Blackstone agreed to buy a 9% stake in the UK real estate investment trust. Tritax agreed to buy Blackstone’s UK logistics assets for 1.04 billion pounds ($1.39 billion).
The broader real estate sector advanced 2.6%.
Among other individual stocks, Oxford Instruments fell 7.6%. The company said it expects first-half revenue to drop and that the shortfall is unlikely to be recovered.
(Reporting by Avinash P and Sanchayaita Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed and Jan Harvey)
