What happened yesterday?
London stocks ended Monday higher, after being boosted by encouraging Chinese data and strong performances from the likes of HSBC and Diageo, while the pound was lifted by Brexit hopes.
HSBC surged 8.89% after its biggest shareholder, China’s Ping An Asset Management, lifted its stake in the bank. Other banks followed the trend, with Lloyds up 7.58%, Standard Chartered rising 7.48% and Barclays adding 7.06%. Elsewhere, Diageo gained 6.09% after saying it made a good start to the current financial year, with the drinks company’s US business beating expectations.
The FTSE 100 ended the session up 1.46% at 5,927.93, and the FTSE 250 was up by 1.91% at 17,370.27. In currency moves, sterling finished positively too, gaining 0.86% on the dollar to $1.29, and advancing 0.69% against the euro to €1.10.
In the US, uncertainty around the upcoming elections seemed to be offset by hopes of a fourth round of fiscal stimulus. At the end of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 1.51% to 27,584.06, while the S&P 500 was up by 1.61% to 3,351.6 and the Nasdaq Composite finished the day up 1.87% to reach 11,117.53.