FTSE 100 Rises Nearly 2%

The U.K. market is up firmly in positive territory in late morning trades on Monday with investors picking up stocks, reacting to the temporary exemption announced by the U.S. on tech products, including smartphones, computers, and key electronics.

However, there is still some uncertainty about Trump’s moves, as commerce secretary Howard Lutnick later clarified that these exemptions are not permanent. Trump later said on Truth Social that they are still subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl tariffs, but just moving to another bracket.

The announcement by the US Customs and Border Protection over the weekend that new exemptions from tariffs on various tech products, including smartphones, laptops, and other electronics means that selected electronic items will be excluded from the current 145% tariffs on China, as well as the 10% baseline tariffs.

The U.S. President has said that he would announce the tariff rate on imported semiconductors within the next week.

The benchmark FTSE 100, which advanced to 8,136.78 earlier in the morning, is up 148.32 points or 1.86% at 8,112.50 nearly half an hour before noon.

Convatec Group is rising nearly 6% and BP is up 5.2%. Barclays, EasyJet, JD Sports Fashion, Standard Chartered, Pershing Square Holdings, Melrose Industries, Prudential, Sainsbury (J), Polar Capital Technology Trust, Glencore and IAG are up 3 to 5%.

Diageo, WPP, BT Group, Natwest Group, Antofatasta, ICG, Associated British Foods, Hiscox, HSBC Holdings, Vodafone Group, Aviva, Airtel Africa, Smith & Nephew, Kingfisher, Centrica and Phoenix Group Holdings are rising 2 to 3%.

Wood Group shares soared up to 32% after Dubai-based Sidara made a conditional bid of 35p per share and proposed a £450 million cash injection. The stock pared most of its gains subsequently, but still remains nearly 11% up from previous closing price.

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