A cautious mood drove a small rise for the FTSE 100 and other leading European stock markets today.
London’s blue-chip index rose 58.23 points, or 1% to 5,799.77, regaining some of the ground lost on Thursday, when concerns over the length and economic impact of Covid-19 disruption knocked shares.
The French Cac 40 and German Dax indices also saw lacklustre growth today – up 0.11% and 1.24% respectively – as traders looked for any signs of the pandemic’s grip on the global economy loosening.
Brent crude continued to benefit from a rosier outlook for inventories in the US, with the global benchmark for oil up more than 3% at $32.36 per barrel, as of 5.40pm.
Oil majors BP and Shell both enjoyed modest gains on the Footsie, with the former’s shares up a fraction at 296.5p and the latter’s “A” and “B” shares climbing nearly 2% to £12.28 and almost 1.5% to 1,175.6p respectively.
Among other listed energy stocks, Cairn Energy lifted nearly 1% to 104.9p and Centrica was 2.4% higher at 36.04p, but Premier Oil fell nearly 5% to 26.7p amid continuing concerns over the £475 million price tag for its acquisition of stakes in two UK North Sea fields from BP.
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