The FTSE 100 touched a fresh intraday record high on Tuesday as gold and silver prices stabilised, providing a much-needed boost to sentiment.
Rising precious metals prices haven’t traditionally been associated with higher equity markets, but the strength of silver and gold’s ascent over the past year has put precious metals in the investor psyche in a way not experienced for decades.
London’s leading index also benefited from a rebound in diversified miners on Tuesday, as investors took a broad-brush approach to piling back into the sector.
The FTSE 100 touched fresh intraday highs of 10,373 before easing back. Gold was 4% higher at 4,920 at the time of writing.
“The sharp sell-off in gold over the past few days has encouraged investors to buy on the dip, scooping up the precious metal in their droves and making it sparkle again,” explained Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
“Gold has delivered such strong rewards to investors over the past year that many people will have treated the recent sell-off as a New Year’s sale, a chance to grab more metal at a discounted price. Gold bugs have doubled down rather than run for the hills.”
Unsurprisingly, Endeavour Mining was top of the leaderboard again with a 5% rally while Fresnillo added 3%.
Anglo American and Antofagasta were 3% higher.
European stocks also received a boost to sentiment from a strong session in Asia after India struck a trade deal with the US.
“With the sharp cut in US tariffs from 50% to 18% in the US-India deal, and with this coming shortly after India sealed a landmark Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, the timing alone could reset investor sentiment and growth expectations significantly after a weak 2025,” explained James Thom, Senior Investment Director of Asian Equities at Aberdeen Investments.
Improving sentiment helped lift cyclical sectors with banks among the risers. Lloyds added 1.3% while NatWest gained 1.2%.
RELX was the FTSE 100 top faller after Barclays analysts slashed their price target to 3,745p. RELX shares were down 5%.