The FTSE 100 is down by 0.31% during the morning session on Monday after weak Chinese trade figures and with few other company or economic updates to funnel sentiment in any particular direction.
““Much of the action centred on the M&A arena. Tobacco giant Philip Morris launched a hostile takeover bid of more than £1 billion for inhaler specialist Vectura, a US private equity firm planted the seeds for a bidding war on supermarket Morrisons with a request for extra time to make an offer and a German rival took a stake in takeaways platform Deliveroo,” said AJ Bell financial analyst Danni Hewson.
The continuing acquisitions of public companies in the UK suggests overseas parties still see significant untapped value in the London stock market.
“In the commodities markets both gold and oil took a hit overnight – with the precious metal dropping to a five-month low and crude falling on fears that lingering travel restrictions will hit demand,” Hewson added.
“Given that much of 2021 has been dominated by mounting concern over the impact over inflation and gold has traditionally offered protection against rising prices, fans of the precious metal will be particularly disappointed by its high single-digit slide in percentage terms year-to-date.”
FTSE 100 Top Movers
SSE (3.22%), Severn Trent (1.14%) and Anglo American (0.94%) are leading the way during the first session of the week.
Hargreaves and Lansdown (-9.95%), Smiths Group (-1.69%) and Persimmon (-1.7%) are trailing the pack of FTSE 100 companies on Monday.