Investing.com — British stocks rose on Monday as fears over disrupted Middle East oil supply pushed crude prices sharply up, offsetting broader European weakness.
The rose 0.5%, recovering from an over one-month low touched recently. The Sterling slipped against the dollar, with GBP/USD down 0.3% to 1.3491.
Heavyweight energy majors such as and gained 1.6% each, while defensive stocks – companies that provide consistent earnings regardless of the overall state of the economy – such as gained 3%.
Oman postponed a planned meeting between Gulf states and Iran on managing the Strait of Hormuz, citing the need for consensus.
ING’s commodities strategists said, “the delay pushes any prospect of de-escalation even further out of reach.”
That followed Saudi Arabia’s shutdown of its 7m barrel-per-day East-West pipeline, “a vital bypass route for Saudi oil exports during disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz,” ING said, after last week’s attacks on the kingdom’s energy infrastructure.
ING added it’s unclear how severe any potential damage is, or how long it will be out of action, adding that the escalation poses risks to its forecast, pushing it closer to a more pessimistic scenario, though the broker is for now sticking with a base case of averaging $80/bbl in the fourth quarter, noting sizeable volumes of oil still moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
Separately, Reuters ship-tracking data showed Hormuz transits falling to single digits over the weekend, against a 10-day average of 14, while US Central Command said it has redirected more than 100 commercial vessels under its blockade of Iranian ports, reinstated in July.
Domestically, Prime Minister Andy Burnham is hosting business leaders, entrepreneurs and local mayors at Downing Street to position his government as a partner for growth.
Ahead of the event, Burnham said Britain has everything it needs to succeed, including talented people and world-class universities, but needs a culture shift in how Britain does business.
He said his government would reindustrialise Britain, adding that this means putting government firmly on the side of the people who take risks, start companies, create jobs and bring new ideas to life.
The roundtable includes founders of Octopus Energy, Revolut, Starling Bank and Oxford Quantum Circuits, alongside chief executives from HSBC, Aviva, Standard Chartered, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, BT, Vodafone, BP, Shell, Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems.
The event precedes Chancellor John Healey’s first budget on 28 October, prepared amid rising borrowing costs and the economic impact of the Iran war.
On the demand side, ING flagged that the IEA’s monthly oil market report made additional aggressive cuts to 2026 demand forecasts, now seeing global oil demand falling 2.5m barrels per day year-on-year, 940,000 b/d deeper than its prior estimate, while still projecting a 2.6m b/d recovery in 2027.
ING also noted middle distillate markets continue to scream tightness, with the ICE gasoil crack at fresh record highs near $84/bbl and US diesel cracks above $110/bbl, a squeeze the bank linked to Russia’s diesel export ban and pressure from Washington on Ukraine to halt refinery strikes.
Brent crude futures climbed 4.4%, while rose 4%.
London-listed miners such as and dropped following weakness in metal prices.
(Pranav Kashyap contributed reporting)