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(Alliance News) -Â London stocks extended gains as Monday's session progressed, with the travel, leisure and energy sectors seeing some reprieve from Covid-19 variant fears.
The FTSE 100 index jumped 81.35 points, or 1.2%, to 7,125.38 Monday midday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 283.99 points, or 1.3%, at 22,821.88. The AIM All-Share index was up 10.47 points, or 0.9%, at 1,192.09.
The Cboe UK 100 index was up 1.1% at 706.19. The Cboe 250 was up 1.2% at 20,298.00, and the Cboe Small Companies up 0.6% at 14,813.85.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 1.2%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was up 0.8% on Monday.
European markets were reclaiming some of the ground lost on Friday as investors panicked over a new coronavirus variant, now known as Omicron.
Oil prices dropped, as did travel stocks, as countries raced to close their borders. But news over the weekend was more encouraging after a South African doctor who raised the alarm over Omicron said dozens of her patients suspected of having the new variant had only shown mild symptoms and recovered fully without hospitalisation.
"The potential for a less deadly form of the virus does appear to provide some respite to the risk-off sentiment dominating Friday's trade. However, the weeks ahead are fraught with danger for investors," said Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at IG.
In the FTSE 100, British Airways-parent International Consolidated Airlines was up 4.6% midday Monday, still far off recovering the 15% drop suffered on Friday. In the FTSE 250, easyJet rose 4.4% and Wizz Air 5.6%.
Cruise operator Carnival topped the mid-cap index, up 7.5%, while WH Smith, which has outposts selling magazines and snacks at airports and train stations, was up 6.8%. Leisure stocks such as cinema chain firm Cineworld also advanced, the stock up 6.3%.
Another group rebounding on Monday were oil majors. BP shares were up 3.6% at midday and Royal Dutch Shell 'A' and 'B' shares up 3.3% and 3.4% respectively.
Brent oil was trading at USD76.24 a barrel at midday, higher than USD73.54 late Friday and still up 57% in the year-to-date, despite concern that travel new travel restrictions cut reduce car and airplane fuel demand.
Outside of lockdown trades, BT was the top performer in the FTSE 100, up 6.8% on a report that Reliance Industries is mulling a bid for the telecommunications firm.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the Economics Times reported that Reliance could make an unsolicited offer to buy into BT or try to take a controlling stake. It also could propose to partner with BT's fibre optic arm Openreach and fund its expansion plans.
Hargreaves Lansdown fell 2.0% after Morgan Stanley cut the retail investment platform to Underweight from Equal Weight.
Elsewhere in London, Marshall Motor jumped 43% to 392.00p after Constellation Automotive Holdings, the owner of an online used car marketplace, made a GBP322.9 million takeover bid for the company. Under the offer, Constellation Automotive will acquire Marshall Motor for 400 pence per share in cash, reflecting a 41% premium to its closing price of 283p on Friday.
So far, Constellation has received irrevocable undertakings and a letter of intent to vote in favour of the acquisition from Marshall of Cambridge Holdings, which holds a 64% stake in Marshall Motor. However, Constellation has not yet received a recommendation from Marshall Motor's board for the acquisition.
Amigo Holdings dived 23% after the company warned that the sanctioning of a new scheme for addressing historic complaints has become "increasingly urgent".
News that the guarantor loans provider swung to a pretax profit of GBP2.1 million for the six months ended September 30 from a loss of GBP62.6 million a year ago was overshadowed by uncertainty over its future.
"At this point, the board does not consider there to be enough certainty to account for claims redress on the basis that a scheme will be sanctioned," the company stated. In order to support its future business, Amigo will be proposing an equity raise.
As Wall Street resumes normal business following last week's Thanksgiving holidays, the Dow Jones is pointed up 0.7%, the S&P 500 up 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.0%.
The dollar was mixed as investors mulled the Omicron situation.
Safe-haven assets, such as the Japanese yen, gave back some recent gains. Against the yen, the dollar rose to JPY113.51 versus JPY113.24. Gold, a fellow safe-haven asset, was quoted at USD1,795.39 an ounce on Monday, soft against USD1,799.30 on Friday.
The euro traded at USD1.1291, lower than USD1.1315 late Friday as data showed economic sentiment in the eurozone has darkened as member states struggle with an up-tick in coronavirus cases.
The economic sentiment indicator for November fell by 1.1 points in the euro area to 117.5 from 118.6 in October, though the commission noted that the monitor still remains at a high level. Nonetheless, this was the weakest reading since May.
The indicator rose in France and Italy, but confidence dropped in Spain, the Netherlands and Germany.
Sterling advanced, however. The pound was quoted at USD1.3354 midday Monday, up from USD1.3322 at the London equities close on Friday.
This was despite UK interest rate expectations cooling in the wake of the coronavirus variant news.
"The market pricing for a December rate hike from the Bank of England now stands at 38%, which is a significant decline from the circa 60% level seen less than a week ago," said IG's Mahony.
Still to come in Monday's economic calendar is German inflation at 1300 GMT.
By Lucy Heming;Â lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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