(Alliance News) – Stock prices in London opened higher on Wednesday, amid a busy schedule for manufacturing PMI releases and amid renewed optimism over the Middle East conflict.
Rachel Reeves said the UK government is “preparing for all eventualities” as the Iran war hits the economy and pushes up fuel and energy costs for consumers.
But the chancellor indicated there was no prospect of immediate help from the Treasury for hard-hit motorists who have seen the cost of filling up at petrol stations soar since the Middle East crisis began.
And she suggested a package of support for energy bills would not come until the autumn, because most households are covered by the current price cap until the end of June and the next cap will cover the summer when gas usage is generally lower.
The FTSE 100 index opened up 177.11 points, 1.7%, at 10,353.56. The FTSE 250 was up 475.72 points, 2.2%, at 21,679.43, and the AIM all-share was up 16.52 points, 2.3%, at 733.64.
The Cboe UK 100 was up 1.8% at 1,032.65, the Cboe UK 250 was up 2.0% at 18,738.96, and the Cboe small companies was up 0.2% at 17,041.50.
US President Donald Trump sparked fresh optimism of an end to the conflict and a reopened Strait of Hormuz, claiming: “My sole function was to make sure that [Iran doesn’t] have a nuclear weapon. They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. When we leave the strait will automatically open.”
More recently, Iran has hit a tanker off the coast of Qatar and Kuwait International Airport, although Tehran acknowledged for the first time that Washington had been in direct contact about a possible ceasefire.
Still, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said there were no negotiations with the US and that Tehran had not responded to a reported 15-point proposal from Washington to end the war.
“We receive messages from the American side, some direct and some through our friends in the region, and whenever necessary we respond to these messages,” Araghchi said in an interview with Al Jazeera aired on Wednesday.
“There are no grounds for negotiations,” he said, adding however that some messages had been exchanged directly with US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Gold was quoted higher at USD4,713.69 an ounce against USD4,541.34.
Gold miners and defence firms led the FTSE 100. Babcock gained 5.5% and Rolls-Royce 6.5%. Antofagasta led, up 7.0%, while Anglo American rose 5.4% and Fresnillo 5.0%.
ICAG was up 5.4%. Wizz Air led the FTSE 250, up 7.0%, while easyJet rose 5.2%.
Brent oil was quoted at USD100.90 a barrel early in London on Wednesday, down from USD112.46 late Tuesday.
BP lost 2.8%, while Shell lost 1.8%. On the FTSE 250, Harbour Energy led the laggers, down 4.6%, followed by Ithaca Energy which lost 4.1%.
Berkeley Group was the FTSE 100’s worst performer, dropping 18%.
The housebuilder said it is pausing new land acquisitions under its ‘Berkeley 2035’ strategy, saying it “does not believe it can make its required rate of return on investment in new land acquisitions.” Instead, it intends to focus on its existing land holdings, aiming to “add GBP2 billion of value to these land holdings through optimisation and bringing our pipeline sites through the planning process.”
In smaller caps, Topps Tiles shares were down 8.0%.
The Leicestershire-based tile retailer said revenue for its first half decreased 0.1% on-year to GBP142.7 million, citing “volume loss from the lengthy CMA process in CTD.” It said it remains on track to return the CTD business to profit in the current financial year.
In European equities on Wednesday, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 1.9%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was up 2.7%.
The pound was quoted at USD1.3269 early Wednesday, higher compared to USD1.3191 on Tuesday. Against the euro, sterling fell to EUR1.1456 from EUR1.1518 a day prior. The euro stood higher at USD1.1583, against USD1.1452. Against the yen, the dollar was trading lower at JPY158.60 compared to JPY159.53.
In Asia on Wednesday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was up 5.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 1.5%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 2.3%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed up 2.2%.
In the US on Tuesday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 2.5%, the S&P 500 up 2.9% and the Nasdaq Composite up 3.8%.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.27%, narrowing from 4.33%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted at 4.87%, narrowing from 4.91%.
“Stocks had sold off on Thursday, Friday, and Monday, with downside having become perhaps a little over-extended, even in the context of ongoing conflict in the Middle East,” Pepperstone’s Michael Brown said. “Still, we needed a catalyst to spark a rebound in risk appetite, and that came in the form firstly of a WSJ piece indicating that President Trump may be prepared to end the war in the Middle East without re-opening the Strait of Hormuz, and subsequently after a ‘Truth Social’ post from the President himself which nodded towards a similar possibility…there were two major takeaways driving the more positive risk tone.
“Firstly, a continuation of the view that Trump is seeking to de-escalate the situation, and to seek an off-ramp. Secondly, a belief that some energy flows through an Iranian-controlled Hormuz are better than the present situation of next-to-no energy flows through a contested Hormuz.”
However, he added: “Whether that is an especially sensible viewpoint remains to be seen, though I can certainly see the logic behind it. I’d also flag that, once again, what we saw yesterday reinforces the idea that participants have a grave fear of being ‘caught short’, where expectations that a Trump pivot (or ‘TACO moment’) are running so high, that anything resembling good news leads to a front-running of the ‘war is over’ headline that everyone is so desperate for.”
Still to come on Wednesday’s economic calendar, the UK’s manufacturing PMI is out at 0930 BST, followed by eurozone and Irish unemployment data.
By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter
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