London’s FTSE 100 made some major progress today, driven higher by demand for mining companies after upbeat broker comment on one of the market’s biggest sectors.
The gains started modest, but built as the day went on and hit a new gear as the European Central Bank singalled it may have hiked rates for the last time this cycle.
Anglo American made the best single gain of the morning, up almost 8% to 2266p, after JP Morgan lifted its price target on the stock to 2900p from 2650p.
Rio Tinto was also among the big risers, after the same analysts lifted their rating on the stock to “neutral” from “underweight”.
And oil companies added their weight to the overall rally, helped by higher crude prices. BP was up over 15p to 524p, moving on from the sudden departure of its chief executive, Bernard Looney. Shell was up 60p at 2548p, after the Brent crude price looked established above $90 a barrel — up another 0.8% at $92.62 — supported by Saudi Arabia and Russia’s plans to extend output cuts to the end of the year.
Breaking the positive trend though was Matt Moulding’s THG, which lost more than 21% after a revenue downgrade.
Elsewhere, the European Central Bank raised its interest rates again.
The ECB’s UK counterpart, the Bank of England, next votes on interest rates a week today.
And there are be plenty of eyes on Arm’s shares, which start trading on the Nasdaq after its $51-a-share IPO.
