The FTSE 100 was slightly stronger on Monday as a poor session in Asia overnight saw London’s leading index flutucate between gains and losses after a storming week last week.
“A weak showing from Hong Kong’s Hang Seng cast a dark cloud over the start of the new trading week, with the index falling 2.3% as investors dumped holdings in real estate, consumer cyclicals and basic materials companies,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.
“China’s post-Covid economic reopening is proving to be less robust than hoped at the start of the year, and now it seems that investors are growing tired of waiting for the Chinese government to announce new stimulus measures.
“There are concerns that the Chinese housing market will remain sluggish and that has weighed on sentiment towards all things related to real estate and construction, including miners over fears that commodities demand could weaken.
“Names like Glencore and Anglo American acted like an anchor on the FTSE 100, dragging the UK index down 0.2% to 7,647. Prudential was also caught up in the negativity around China, given it is a key territory for the life insurer. It was the same story for HSBC, slipping 1.3%.
“UK housebuilders and banks gave up some of their recent gains as investors locked in some profits after one of the best weeks for the FTSE in a long time.”
Housebuilders have staged a monumental rally after UK inflation slipped and boosted chances of slower rate hikes.
FTSE 100 movers
Ocado has found its way into the headlines one way or another lately, and on Monday, a 12% gain in the food retailer meant the spotlight was firmly back on the company.
On Monday, Ocado announced litigation between Ocado and AutoStore had been settled, and action against each other was being dropped. Ocado was the FTSE 100 top gainer at the time of writing.
Tim Steiner, Chief Executive Officer of Ocado Group plc, said:
“I am pleased that we have worked together to resolve our differences and can now continue to focus on what we do best – innovating, developing and enabling partners to access world beating technology”
Vodafone was 2.5% higher amid a bout of optimism emanating from their Q1 results.
