London’s FTSE 100 rises on boost from financial, energy stocks

By Anisha Sircar

(Reuters) -London’s FTSE 100 rose on Monday, boosted by gains in financial and energy stocks, after the blue-chip index posted its third straight weekly drop on sluggish economic growth worries.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index rose 1.5% with banks and oil majors BP and Shell 3.3% each leading gains.[O/R]

Meanwhile, the domestically focused FTSE 250 index added 0.5%.

London’s main share index fell last week on escalating worries about a recession and bets of bigger interest rate hikes after a cautious raise by the Bank of England.

“This is a reprieve after the poor performance last week – it’s hard to find positive economic news and any rallies are expressions of relief that things haven’t got materially worse,” said Stuart Cole, head-macro economist, Equiti Capital.

Focus is now on UK consumer price index data due Wednesday and PMI, as well as retail sales readings due later this week.

“It would take a brave person to suggest the outlook is looking brighter this morning, given that CPI is expected to continue its rise…, while retail sales numbers are likely to show consumers tightening their belts and reigning in on consumption as the cost of living crisis bites ever deeper,” said Cole.

Meanwhile, the Bank of England interest-rate setter Catherine Mann said the central bank should raise rates faster than it has done so far because weakness in the value of the pound is adding to inflation pressures in Britain.

Building insulation specialist Kingspan plunged 11.4%, after saying it had seen the mood in most end markets deteriorate, with order intake volume down significantly in May and June.

Euromoney Institutional Investor jumped 26.1% after saying it received a possible cash offer which could value the information services firm at around 1.60 billion pounds ($1.96 billion).

British recruitment firm SThree Plc rose 5.2% as it said it was seeing robust demand for contract roles as employers search for the right talent in a competitive job market, after forecasting its annual profit would beat market consensus.

U.S. markets were shut on Monday for the Juneteenth holiday.

(Reporting by Anisha Sircar and Amal S in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V and Rashmi Aich)