The FTSE 100 rose on Monday shrugging off worries over the war of words between Donald Trump and North Korea.
After Donald Trump said the US military was ‘locked and loaded’ to deal with Korea, the FTSE 100 fell sharply to close at 7309 on Friday. However, shares rose today as investors welcomed a cooling in the tension between US and North Korea. By 3.40pm the FTSE 100 was up by 59 points at 7369.
It was a quiet day for company news and travel and tourism company, Tui AG, was the biggest riser on the FTSE 100, up over 5 per cent after Credit Suisse upgraded its rating on the stock to “neutral” from “underperform”. Tui AG was trading at 1298p, up 5.44 per cent in late London trade. Standard Life share fell as much as 2.5 per cent after it completed an £11bn merger with Aberdeen Asset Management. The new company is to be called Standard Life Aberdeen.
In the FTSE 250, shipping company Clarkson has announced a 12% jump in pre-tax profit to £23.5m in the first half of the year, sending share higher by over 2 per cent to £27.03. Telit Communication’s Chief Executive announced he was to step down from the board after it emerged he was previously indicted in the US over allegations of fraud.
Shares gave up initial gains after the company said it remains on track to hit recent full-year guidance and reassured investors the scandal had not affected its underlying business. Telit confirmed it still expects to post adjusted underlying earnings for 2017 of between US$47m and US$60m on revenues of between US$400m and US$430m.
After sharp losses last week, FTSE 100 banks jumped; HSBC was up 1% to 746.3p and Royal Bank of Scotland gained 1.4% to 260.1p.
Oil was largely flat on disappointment OPEC’s supply cut agreement was wavering. An increase in US oil rig count and the decline in China’s refining activity also added pressure on prices. The market will look forward to the release of weekly crude oil inventories by the American Petroleum Institute tomorrow to gauge potential supply increases.