Highlights
- FTSE 100 up 78 points at 10,737 as geopolitical tensions ease
- Wall Street opens in the green
- Brent crude retreats to around $102 as Saudi pipeline restart hopes cool supply fears
- Mining stocks lead London higher ahead of Thursday’s Trump-Xi summit
- Antofagasta, Anglo American and Metlen among the strongest blue-chip risers
- Bitcoin breaks above $82,000, reaching a fresh six-month high
- Shell and BP fall with oil prices, while Craneware sinks 18% after an earnings warning
Blue-chips
The blue-chip stocks were holding around the 10,737 mark heading into the final 40 minutes of the session, buoyed by a positive start on Wall Street. Tomorrow, we have results from Kingfisher, which will provide a further barometer of high street sentiment, following an upbeat performance by rival Wickes last week.
Wall Street opens in the green
The Footsie has cooled a little but is holding on to a decent chunk of its gains, up 74 points having drifted back from its session high.
The mood is being helped along by cheaper oil, which has dipped below $100 a barrel amid hopes that the US and Iran might return to the negotiating table.
Across the Atlantic, US stocks have opened mixed after a rocky few weeks.
The S&P 500 is up 0.5% and the Nasdaq 0.8%, though the Dow is lagging with a 0.4% dip, having just notched a third straight weekly loss.
Investors are still digesting last week's Fed rate hike and bracing for more to come.
Eyes now turn to Thursday's Trump-Xi summit, with tariffs and AI cooperation top of the agenda.
Bitcoin bouncing higher
With bitcoin breaking towards $82,500 and a new six-month high, here's the latest take from our friends at IG and the prediction markets:
On Kalshi, the regulated US exchange, traders have clustered the bulk of their year-end 2026 bets in the $60,000 to $70,000 range.
The same platform briefly settled its $80,000 marker for September back on the third, when bitcoin spiked above $82,000, only to hand the gains straight back.
Rival venue Polymarket, which runs its own active year-end market on the bitcoin price, has drawn tens of millions of dollars in wagers on the question.
Whether today's break holds is the obvious question.
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at trading platform IG, reckons the breakout could mark a turning point.
"It has been months since bitcoin has seen the world above $80,000," he said, arguing that markets had rediscovered a "risk-on frame of mind".
He said the timing was ideal, with bitcoin moving out of its historically weak August and September window and into a ten-month stretch that has, on average, delivered positive returns.
Beauchamp was less upbeat on the regulatory backdrop.
He said US lawmakers had "managed to fumble" the passage of the Clarity Act, the industry's hoped-for rulebook, leaving a likely turf war between the SEC and the CFTC.
That, he warned, leaves investors stuck in the middle, with little prospect of a fix before the midterms.
On the stock market, the bright start to the week continues, with the FTSE 100 up 103 points at 10,761.58.
Blue-chips kick on as China talks lift the mining sector
London's blue-chips pushed higher, with mining stocks doing the heavy lifting as hopes of progress in US-China trade talks lifted China-sensitive names.
The FTSE 100 added 80 points to 10,738.73, while the FTSE 250 climbed 175 points to 24,381.
Metlen Energy & Metals jumped 4.9%, with Antofagasta up 2.8% and Anglo American ahead 2.5%.
Banks joined the advance, Standard Chartered rising 2.5% and Barclays gaining 2.1%.
Energy was the drag as Brent crude slid more than 2%, leaving BP down 1.4% and mid-cap producers Energean and Ithaca Energy off 2.2% and 1.6% respectively.
Housebuilders retreated across the board, while AIM barely budged.
Blue-chips off to a strong start
The FTSE 100 opened 47 points higher at 10,707.10 as geopolitical issues receded a little and Saudi Arabia said a key pipeline could be back up and running soon.
Brent crude, the market's key oil benchmark, fell 1.75%, but remained above the $100 mark ($102).
Given this downward trajectory, no surprises, then, to see Shell and BP leading the fallers' list.
Mining stocks, by contrast, led the Footsie, with copper specialist Antofagasta sitting atop the pile.
Corporate news was at a premium, with Mothercare issuing a small slug of good news, though reiterating its challenges remain existential. Craneware fell 18% after sounding the earnings alarm.
FTSE called higher at start of the week
The FTSE 100 is set to open 37 points higher, a modest bounce that suggests the City has decided to stop fretting about the oil price for five minutes.
Crude has slipped back below $100 a barrel, with West Texas Intermediate down 1.7% at $98.59 and Brent easing to $102.16.
The trigger? Those supply-disruption jitters are finally cooling.
Saudi Arabia reckons its East-West pipeline, knocked out by drone strikes earlier this month, will be pumping again at roughly half capacity within days.
That is enough to take the edge off, even with Donald Trump in what he calls "deciding mode" over Iran and muttering about "big things" ahead.
Asia was a mixed bag overnight: South Korea's Kospi rose 1.5%, Australia was flat and Japan clocked off for a three-day holiday.
Eyes now turn to Thursday's Trump-Xi s
