London's FTSE 100 rose on Monday led by strong gains in energy stocks, with oil prices on track for their best month in almost a year, while Vodafone topped the index on plans to design its own chip architecture.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index gained 0.3%, on-track to end its second month higher, with Shell, BP and Vodafone the top boosts.
Vodafone was the top FTSE 100 gainer, up 3.6%, after saying it would work with Intel Corp and other silicon vendors on designing its own chip architecture to drive innovation and efficiency in nascent OpenRAN network technology.
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Investors now await a key monetary policy decision from the Bank of England due later this week where expectations are for a 50-basis-point rate hike, its second hike in a row, as it looks to tame rising inflation pressure.
"There are some concerns about the hit to disposable income from the surge in inflation coming in the spring, but this might just redouble the committee's (MPC) resolve to bring it back under control," according to Brian Hillard, chief UK economist at Societe General.
The FTSE 100 is set to end the month 1.4% higher, significantly outperforming its mid-cap peers and the wider European stock aggregate, which are both on track to record their worst month since March 2020.
Robust performance in higher weightage banking and energy shares on expectations of rising interest rates and soaring oil prices, respectively, and a lower representation of technology stocks that do not perform well in a high-interest scenario has helped the FTSE 100 outperform.
The domestically focussed mid-cap index rose 0.8% with travel and leisure stocks gaining the most.
Among stocks, British recruiting firm SThree jumped 8.3% after its annual profit nearly doubled.
Britain's biggest online-only estate agency, Purplebricks Group gained 2.5% after it forecast a return to growth in 2023, after it posted a half-year loss hurt by charges related to "process issues".
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