London close: FTSE ends up as trade worries ease; miners rally

London stocks ended in the black on Monday amid hopes of a de-escalation in the latest trade dispute between the US and China, with miners pacing the advance.

The FTSE 100 closed 0.2% higher at 9,442.87.

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said: "Late on Sunday afternoon, Donald Trump seemed to backtrack on his threat to impose a further 100% tariff rate on China after it applied controls to rare earth mineral exports.

"The President posted on his Truth Social account, saying ‘Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine!’, he said that President Xi ‘had a bad moment’ He said that the US wants to ‘help China, not hurt it !!!’ This seems fairly conciliatory, even if Trump will not take responsibility for escalating this latest trade war.

"However, this tweet does not suggest that there has been a solution to the latest trade spat between China and the US, and instead Trump appears to be suggesting that financial markets have overreacted to his threat of 100% tariffs. Thus, even if there is a stock market recovery today, investors could still remain edgy this week and continue the sell off if the situation deteriorates.

"The TACO trade, ‘Trump Always Chickens Out’, fueled the recovery rally in April, so if it looks like the same will happen again, then we could see markets absorb Trump’s tariff threats relatively quickly, and volatility could retreat at the start of this week."

In equity markets, miners and precious metals miners were the standout gainers as gold, silver and copper prices rose, with Fresnillo, Hochschild, Endeavour, Antofagasta, Anglo American and Glencore all up.

Lloyds gained after saying it was putting aside a further £800m to cover compensation costs related to the motor finance mis-selling scandal. The bank said it has now made a £1.95bn provision, including both redress and operational costs, up from £1.15bn previously.

This follows the FCA’s ruling last week that lenders must pay out £11bn including costs after finding "widespread failings" in how motor finance firms disclosed commission payments and commercial ties between lenders and brokers on agreements signed between 6 April 2007 and 1 November 2024.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "Lloyds has increased its motor finance compensation provisions by more than two thirds. The bank gives the impression it is not happy with the proposed compensation methodology, implying this is not a done and dusted situation. It isn’t trying to wriggle out of paying compensation full stop. Instead, it appears to be pushing for a fairer redress system.

"A rising share price represents two things: one, some clarity on Lloyds’ potential exposure; and two, hope that Lloyds might successfully get the regulator to tweak its proposal in its favour."

M&G was boosted by an upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ at Berenberg, while Aviva edged up after RBC Capital Markets resumed coverage of the stock at ‘outperform’.

Financial services firm Legal & General rose after saying that Scott Wheway will succeed John Kingman as chairman following the group's next annual general meeting on 21 May 2026.

Big Yellow surged after private equity firm Blackstone confirmed it is considering a possible offer for the self-storage company.

Safestore Holdings also pushed higher.

IP Group rallied after saying it was "encouraged" by the results of a recent clinical trial of a Metsara obesity drug, which could result in future sustainable royalties if approved by regulators.

The company, which invests in early stage businesses in the deeptech, life sciences and cleantech sectors, owns and exclusively licenses certain underlying IP relating to Metsera's programmes including its lead product MET-097i, a monthly injectable GLP-1 drug.

Oxford Instruments slid after it confirmed a fall in first-half revenues, saying it had been hit hard by US tariffs.

AstraZeneca dipped despite striking a deal with the White House to cut prices of the drugs it sells in America, allowing it to avoid steep tariffs on US imports.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 9,442.87 0.16%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,080.80 1.28%
techMARK (TASX) 5,564.47 0.13%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Fresnillo (FRES) 2,592.00p 9.09%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 2,827.00p 4.98%
Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 18,690.00p 4.18%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,999.00p 4.13%
Entain (ENT) 834.00p 3.60%
Glencore (GLEN) 357.25p 3.30%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,169.00p 3.13%
M&G (MNG) 262.60p 3.02%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,940.00p 2.55%
Mondi (MNDI) 844.80p 2.50%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

BAE Systems (BA.) 1,951.50p -1.56%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 4,812.00p -1.51%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,788.00p -1.48%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,211.00p -1.46%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,182.50p -1.42%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 2,378.00p -1.25%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 84.38p -1.24%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 231.00p -1.20%
Admiral Group (ADM) 3,350.00p -1.12%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,110.00p -1.07%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Big Yellow Group (BYG) 1,114.00p 15.44%
IP Group (IPO) 59.20p 11.49%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 3,436.00p 11.27%
Safestore Holdings (SAFE) 716.00p 9.40%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 64.55p 8.21%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 386.60p 6.68%
Vistry Group (VTY) 640.00p 5.89%
Great Portland Estates (GPE) 329.00p 4.44%
Future (FUTR) 655.00p 4.30%
Genus (GNS) 2,650.00p 4.13%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 1,830.00p -7.58%
Alpha Group International (ALPH) 4,055.00p -3.45%
Unite Group (UTG) 601.50p -1.96%
Helios Towers (HTWS) 145.20p -1.63%
Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) 144.30p -1.57%
Partners Group Private Equity Limited. (EUR) (PEY) 10.65p -1.39%
Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 979.50p -1.26%
Ruffer Investment Company Ltd Red PTG Pref Shares (RICA) 289.50p -1.03%
BlackRock Greater Europe Inv Trust (BRGE) 586.00p -1.01%
Fidelity European Trust (FEV) 412.50p -0.96%