The FTSE 100 is projected to start with a 0.6% gain today after the Federal Reserve said it would buy US$600 billion of treasuries through June.
Part-nationalised bank Lloyds (LON:LLOY) and car insurer Admiral Group (LON:ADM) led the blue chips with gains of just over 2.5% yesterday. Base metal miner Vedanta Resources (LON:VED) and bank Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) rose 2.2% and 2.1% respectively. Another major bank HSBC (LON:HSBA) and oil and gas supermajor BP (LON:BP) each added 1.8%. Silver miner Fresnillo (LON:FRES) climbed 1.7%, while banking group Barclays (LON:BARC) rose 1.6%.
Defence and aerospace systems manufacturer Cobham (LON:COB) was the heaviest faller in the FTSE 100, sliding 9.5% on a profit warning. Base metal miner Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) declined 4.4%. Defence contractor BAE Systems (LON:BA), software company Sage Group (LON:SGE) and chipmaker ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) lost nearly 3%. Oil and gas supermajor Shell (LON:RDSB) shed 2.4%.
US stocks closed with gains. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes added 0.25% and 0.35%, while the technology heavy NASDAQ composite climbed 0.3%.
Markets in Asia and Australia were in buying mode today. China’s Shanghai Composite Index advanced 1.45%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.35%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rallied 2.2%, South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.35% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.5%.
Commodities
US light, sweet crude for December delivery climbed to US$85.30/barrel, while December Brent Crude was just 3 cents short of US$87/barrel.
Precious metals moved up. Gold reached US$1,355/oz, while silver and platinum rose to US$25/oz and US$1,711/oz respectively.
Base metals followed. Copper and nickel advanced to US$3.83/lb and US$10.77/lb. Zinc improved to US$1.12/lb.
The US Labor Department will release its weekly jobless claims data today, while non-farm payrolls will be out tomorrow.
The Bank of England will announce its decision on interest rates today with no change to the current rates expected.