FTSE 100 climbs 1% on banks, miners boost
FTSE 100 climbs 1% on banks, miners boost For a Reuters live blog on US, UK and European stock markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window
Nov 4 - Britain's FTSE 100 advanced on Wednesday as banks rallied ahead of an expected rate hike this week, while the weakening of the dollar following the Democrats' sweep of the US midterms lifted gold prices and shares of precious metal miners.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index .FTSE rose 1.18% to 10,764.49 points by 1121 GMT — on track for its biggest one-day percentage gain in about six weeks; the midcap FTSE 250 .FTMC climbed 0.83% to a two-month high.
Banking stocks .FTNMX301010, up 4.3% and set for their biggest one-day gain in nearly six months, were providing the biggest lift to the FTSE 100
HSBC HSBA.L, Standard Chartered STAN.L, NatWest Group NWG.L, Lloyds Banking Group LLOY.L and Barclays BARC.L rose between 3.6% and 4.8% each
The rally came a day before the Bank of England's policy decision, with markets largely expecting a 25-basis-point hike in rates
"Banks have massively underperformed this year... if you do have a rate hike, it obviously increases that net interest income, which can be a bonus; it would be supportive," said Fiona Cincotta, senior markets analyst at City Index
Precious metal miners .FTNMX551030 rose nearly 6.2%, set for their biggest one-day gain in nearly three months, tracking a 3% rise in gold prices GOL/
The dollar slipped as Democrats' sweep of the US midterms elections raised concerns over the prospect of tighter AI regulation and its potential drag on economic growth USD/
Lion Finance Group BGEO.L rose 7.5% after the banking and financial services group announced a 62 million Georgian lari ($24.2 million) share buyback, lifting the stock among the FTSE 100's top gainers
Engineering firm Weir WEIR.L fell 7.7%, among the top FTSE 100 laggards, after flagging shorter-term headwinds from Middle East conflict and Chilean mine disruptions, despite maintaining its annual outlook
Metro Bank MTRO.L jumped 13.9% to lead the midcap index after reaffirming all its targets, including return on tangible equity of more than 13% in 2026, over 15% in 2027 and above 18% in 2028
(Reporting by Darshan Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das)
((darshan.kumar@thomsonreuters.com))