Miners lift London stocks as gold, copper hit record highs

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By Pranav Kashyap and Purvi Agarwal

(Reuters) -London equities managed to eke out some gains on Monday after two consecutive sessions of losses, helped by a rally among metal miners and defence stocks, while investors awaited a key domestic inflation reading later in the week.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 shook off its recent slump to climb 0.1% while the mid-cap FTSE 250 closed 0.6% higher, at its highest in over two years.

Precious metal miners led sectoral gains with a 2.8% rise, as spot gold prices surged to record highs. Industrial metal miners also advanced 0.5% after copper hit an all-time peak. [GOl/] [MET/L]

“Investors have taken confidence that inflation in the U.S. is not moving out of control, and that has allowed global markets to rally. Markets are quite happy to buy the dip,” Giles Coghlan, managing director at GCFX Ltd, said.

Aerospace and defence stocks also rose 2.3% as uncertainty in the Middle East grew after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash.

Meanwhile, Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said on Monday the Bank of England could cut interest rates in the next few months, depending on how rapidly the knock-on impact on wage growth and prices from 2022’s surge in inflation eases.

Investors will be watching the crucial consumer price index (CPI) reading on Wednesday, alongside quarterly results from American chipmaker Nvidia.

In corporate news, Kainos Group jumped 17.3% and was the top performer on the mid-cap index after the services firm reported upbeat full-year results.

Keywords Studios surged 55.2% as European private equity group EQT was in advanced talks to buy the Dublin-based video game services company for $2.79 billion.

EasyJet fell 3.2% to the bottom of FTSE 100 after the CEO of Irish budget airline Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, said that a “recessionary feel around Europe” could be a factor in slower-than-expected growth in airfares.

(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Krishna Chandra Eluri and Andrew Heavens)