U.K. stocks were modestly higher on Tuesday, with commodity-related shares surging on optimism over a vaccine-led economic recovery.
Dovish comments by Bank of England’s policy maker Gertjan Vlieghe the previous day also offered some support.
“Just because we’re going to have a couple of quarters of growth rates that may be unprecedented doesn’t mean the Bank of England should change its monetary stance and step on the brakes because everything is ‘great now’,” he told TheBusinessDesk.com, a regional business news website, in an interview published on Monday.
The benchmark FTSE 100 rose 26 points, or 0.4 percent, to 6,762 after declining 0.1 percent on Monday.
Banks Barclays and HSBC Holdings climbed 2-3 percent while miners Anglo American, Antofagasta, BHP, Rio Tinto and Glencore were up 1-3 percent.
In the oil & gas sector, BP Plc gained 0.6 percent and Royal Dutch Shell added half a percent.
Postal service company Royal Mail jumped 2.6 percent after announcing a one-off dividend payment.
Imperial Brands declined 1.5 percent. The tobacco company stated that it remains on track to deliver full year results in line with the company’s guidance with low-mid single digit organic adjusted operating profit growth at constant currency.
AstraZeneca fell over 1 percent after Canada suspended its Covid vaccine for adults aged 55 and under because of an adverse event referred to as Vaccine-Induced Prothrombotic Immune Thrombocytopenia (VIPIT).
FTSE 100 Modestly Higher On Recovery Hopes
2021-03-30 09:33:42
