London's FTSE 100 rose for a fourth straight session on Monday, as investors pinned their hopes on a revival in business activity with Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlining plans to gradually ease some coronavirus-induced lockdown measures.
While Johnson said on Sunday the lockdown will not end yet, he announced a limited easing of restrictions, including allowing people to exercise outside more often and encouraging some people to return to work.
The FTSE 100 climbed 0.4% and the mid-cap FTSE 250 added 0.8%, as traders returning from a long weekend also caught up with strong gains in Europe on Friday, driven by an easing in US-China tensions.
"The recovery of the past few weeks is impressive, especially given the dire economic data and earnings figures," said Milan Cutkovic, market analyst at AxiCorp.
"There are still plenty of investors who are keeping their powder dry and waiting for another larger decline to buy the dip, (while) some are chasing the momentum as the fear of missing out kicks in."
The blue-chip FTSE 100 has now recovered about 22% from a March low on a raft of global stimulus, but it remains more than 20% down on the year as the outbreak halts supply chains, crushes consumer spending and puts entire sectors on the verge of collapse.
On a slow company news day, early gains were driven by battered life insurers, banks and miners.
But airline stocks tumbled again as Johnson said the UK would soon need to quarantine people coming into the country by air to prevent a second wave of coronavirus infections. British Airways-owner IAG fell 2.5%, while EazyJet Plc, shed 7.3%.
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