London’s FTSE 100 rose on Monday as hopes for progress in Russian-Ukraine peace talks lifted sentiment globally, with financials leading the advance, while Rio Tinto fell after proposing to buy the remaining of Canada’s Turquoise Hill.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index climbed 0.3% in volatile trade, with banks and insurers leading the gains.
However, the advance was limited as energy and mining shares fell 1% and 3.5%, respectively, tracking weaker commodity prices.
“Financials are going higher with rates and there is a little bit of sell-off in commodities. It’s very much copybook sort of market reaction at the moment, driven by hopes of progress in the Ukraine-Russia talks,” said Keith Temperton, a sales trader at Forte Securities.
Diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine were gearing up, with Ukrainian and Russian negotiators set to talk again after both sides cited progress.
Yields on UK bonds of both longer- and shorter-dated rebounded after two straight sessions of falls, as traders braced for a likely rise in interest rates by the Bank of England this week to curb soaring inflation.
Index provider FTSE Russell said it would delete Russia-focused Evraz, Polymetal International , Petropavlovsk and Raven Property Group after trading in their shares was curtailed by a pull-back from the country’s stock market by leading brokerages.
The domestically focussed mid-cap index advanced 1.2% to extend the previous week’s gains, with travel and leisure stocks among the top gainers.
Joining the corporate exodus from Russia, British American Tobacco Plc said on Friday it would exit Russia and cut its fiscal 2022 guidance as a result. Shares of the company were down 2.0%.
Rio Tinto fell 3.4% after the miner proposed to buy 49% of Canada’s Turquoise Hill it does not already own for about $2.7 billion, as the Anglo-Australian miner looks to ramp up the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mining project in Mongolia.
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