London open: Stocks rise despite conflicting Middle East messages

(Sharecast News) - London stocks rose in early trade on Tuesday following losses in the previous session, as investors mulled conflicting messages on the status of US-Iran peace talks.

At 0840 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.4% at 10,382.68, while Brent crude was 0.8% lower at $94.24 a barrel.

Stocks fell and oil rallied on Monday following reports that Iran had pulled out of talks with the US over Israel's operations in Lebanon. US President Donald Trump subsequently told CNBC that he didn't care if the talks with Iran were over.

"I really don't care. I couldn't care less," Trump reportedly told CNBC's Eamon Javers in a telephone interview, adding that he thought the discussions were "started to get very boring".

However, Trump also told ABC News that he thought there could be an agreement with Iran to extend the ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz "over the next week."

"Looking good, looking good," he reportedly told ABC News' chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl in a telephone conversation on Monday. "There was a little glitch today, but I turned that one around very quickly, as you probably noticed earlier," Trump said.

ABC said the glitch, according to Trump, was that Tehran was upset about Israel's attacks on Lebanon.

Trump also claimed on Monday that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to stop fighting.

Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said: "The London market has lifted in early trade as oil prices have dipped back a little, and bargain hunters appear keen to buy the dip of recent days. There is no concrete progress in Middle East negotiations to hang a hat on, but investors appear broadly optimistic that a longer-term resolution will be reached. Even devastating attacks by Russia on Ukraine have not hit sentiment, with investors shrugging off tense geopolitics.

"Instead, AI enthusiasm is still the talk of the town, with Anthropic is joining the listing party, filing paperwork for an IPO later this year. The company is clearly keen to capitalise on mega-enthusiasm washing through markets for artificial intelligence investments. It's hot on the heels of SpaceX's filing, and there are expectations that OpenAI will also go public pretty soon. Anthropic may attract particularly strong investor demand because it has built a reputation as one of the more enterprise-focused and safety-conscious AI firms."

In equity markets, British American Tobacco slumped after it said in a first-half update that it was on track to meet the lower end of full-year guidance.

Shell and BP gushed lower as oil prices fell, while defence company Chemring lost ground as it posted a drop in interim profit but a record order book.

On the upside, Elementis jumped as it said the sale of its pharmaceutical manufacturing business had completed and it will now return around $35m of the net cash proceeds to shareholders.

British Land gained as it announced the appointment of Joanne McNamara as its next chief executive. McNamara is joining from Oxford Properties, where she is currently executive vice president, Europe.