(Reuters) -London shares made a modest recovery on Monday, led by miners, as 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 was up 0.07% as of 1012 GMT, 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.
The mid-cap focused FTSE 250 gained 1.15%.
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.
In the market, precious metal miners led gains with 7% rise as gold prices hit another record high. [GOL/]
Gold miners Fresnillo and Endeavour gained the most in the FTSE 100 with 7.6% and 6.4% rise, respectively.
In the latest round of mergers and acquisitions, U.S. private equity giant Blackstone said it was in the early stages of considering a cash offer for Big Yellow Group, lifting the self-storage firm’s shares 18.3%.
Rival Safestore also jumped 11.2% on the news.
Tritax Big Box gained nearly 3% 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 2.5%.
An index of industrial metal miners rose 2.2%, tracking gains in copper prices. [MET/L]
Mining heavyweights Anglo American, Glencore and Rio Tinto rose between 1.5% and 2.8%, helping lift the blue chip index.
Among other individual stocks, Oxford Instruments shed 11.4% as the company expects H1 revenue to drop and said the shortfall is unlikely to be recovered.
Lloyds Banking Group gained 1% after a motor finance charge came in lower than anticipated.
(Reporting by Avinash P and Sanchayaita Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)
