Precious metal miners across Europe rose as Trump softened his rhetoric on trade tensions with China, after concerns sparked a sharp sell-off on Friday.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index partially regained losses from last week, ticking up 0.4 per cent.
Dublin
The Iseq All-Share index rose marginally in line with its European counterparts. The index ended the session up 0.33 per cent to 11,630.51.
Irish multinational nutrition company Glanbia were the big winners in trading, adding 3.85 per cent to its stock price to reach €14.58.
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Glenveagh Properties added 3.61 per cent and Cairn Homes gained 2.99 per cent in a strong day for the home builders which also saw insulation and building materials specialist, Kingspan Group add 1.59 per cent.
Irish Ferries brand owner Irish Continental Group rode the wave to end at €5.90, up 2.79 per cent.
A poor day for the banks pinned back gains. AIB Group fell 0.65 per cent, while Bank of Ireland dropped 0.32 per cent. Permanent TSB Group down 0.87 per cent rounded out the challenging trading for the sector.
Mincon, the small cap engineering tools group, performed worst on the day, dropping 4.65 per cent to reach €0.41.
London
The blue-chip FTSE 100 gained 0.16 per cent, having dropped 0.9 per cent the previous session after Trump threatened 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports, reigniting fears of a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
However, over the weekend, Trump struck a more conciliatory tone, posting that “it will all be fine” and that the U.S. had no intention to “hurt” China.
Precious metal miners outperformed peers in the market, closing up nearly 10 per centas gold broke through $4,100 (€3,540) per ounce for the first time on Monday.
Fresnillo and Endeavour were the top gainers in the FTSE 100, rising 9.1 per cent and 11.3 per cent respectively.
Industrial metal miners gained 3.1 per cent tracking increases in copper prices.
Mining heavyweights Anglo American, Glencore and Rio Tinto rose between 2 per cent and 4.1 per cent, helping lift the blue-chip index further.
Meanwhile, the latest round of mergers and acquisitions lifted some mid-cap stocks, with the broader FTSE 250 index up 1.2 per cent.
US private equity giant Blackstone said it was in the early stages of considering a cash offer for Big Yellow Group, sending the self-storage firm’s shares up 15.4 per cent. Rival Safestore also climbed 9.4 per cent on the news.
Tritax Big Box added nearly 3.8 per cent after Blackstone agreed to buy a 9 per cent stake in the UK real estate investment trust. Tritax agreed to buy Blackstone’s UK logistics assets.
The broader real estate sector advanced 2.6 per cent. Among other individual stocks, Oxford Instruments fell 7.6 per cent. The company said it expects first-half revenue to drop and that the shortfall is unlikely to be recovered.
Europe
The pan-European STOXX 600 index ticked up 0.4 per cent, clawing back some losses from a 1.3 per cent plunge on Friday.
Basic resources jumped 3 per cent as copper prices advanced on hopes of easing U.S.-China trade tensions.
France’s CAC 40 edged up 0.2 per cent after Sébastien Lecornu was reappointed as the prime minister on Friday, just four days after he had resigned from the role. The Government must formally present a budget in the coming days that faces a perilous path through a deeply divided parliament.
Among big movers, PSI Software surged 35.8 per cent towards its highest since 2021 after private equity firm Warburg Pincus was set to buy the German software firm for more than €700 million euros.
Exosens climbed 10.5 per cent after Greek night vision systems maker Theon International said it plans to buy a 9.8 per cent stake in its French peer. Theon’s shares dipped 1.3 per cent.
The technology sector gained 1.8 per cent, with a big boost from semiconductor maker ASML.
The US stock markets were closed on Monday for Columbus Day. – Additional reporting, Reuters.
