March 9 (Reuters) - London’s FTSE 100 rose on Tuesday, reversing early losses as investors piled into energy and industrials stocks, buoyed by optimism about a global economic recovery and more U.S. stimulus, though subdued mining shares capped gains.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index rose 0.3%, with oil heavyweights BP and Royal Dutch Shell being the biggest boosts to the index.
Mining stocks, including Rio Tinto, Anglo American and BHP were among the laggards, falling between 1.9% and 2.6%, as metal prices fell on a firm dollar. “Companies related to reopening are doing well and there is a general cyclical reflationary trade we are seeing this morning, and the focus will be on the debt auctions in the United States to see how yields respond,” said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com.
“The FTSE 100 will progress higher as the UK does better economically amd should be a cyclical winner.”
Global stimulus measures and optimism about an economic rebound from vaccination rollouts have helped the FTSE 100 recover more than 37% from a coronavirus-driven crash last year, but investors are cautious after Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey expressed concerns on Monday about a possible rise in inflation.
British consumers cut back heavily on spending as they spent a second month in a COVID-19 lockdown in February but confidence in the economy hit a 12-month high, payment card firm Barclaycard said.
The domestically focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index rose 0.4%, led consumer discretionary stocks stocks.
World’s largest inter-dealer broker TP ICAP Plc fell 4.3%, after it halved its dividend citing a one-off reduction, and said first-quarter revenue might be lower compared to 2020.
Office space provider IWG tumbled 6.8%, after saying it will shut more underperforming centres as the market recovery from the pandemic was taking longer than anticipated.
(Reporting by Shivani Kumaresan in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
Source: Reuters