British stocks started the week positively, boosted by encouraging corporate updates, while investors considered the impact of U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to end his re-election bid.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index rose by 0.5%, and the mid-cap FTSE 250 gained 0.3%, recovering from declines on Friday.
Major Wall Street indexes also increased as investors evaluated the chances of a second term for Republican nominee Donald Trump in the upcoming election after Biden’s withdrawal.
“If you were hoping for markets to come into the new week having shaken off a lot of last week’s volatility – that’s what you’ve got really,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG Group.
Most sub-sectors traded higher, rebounding from Friday’s losses caused by disappointing UK retail sales data and weaker commodity prices.
This week’s release of U.S. gross domestic product and inflation data could provide insights into the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy direction.
Investors are also looking forward to earnings reports from Wall Street giants, including Alphabet and Tesla, for market cues.
Rentokil soared 7.8% to lead the FTSE 100 after reports that former BT Group chief Philip Jansen is working on a private equity-backed takeover bid for the pest-control firm.
Entain climbed 1.8% following the announcement that Gavin Isaacs will become its new CEO on September 2.
On the midcap index, Wizz Air fell 10% after Irish peer Ryanair missed quarterly profit estimates.
Ocado surged 12.2% after the online supermarket and technology group announced that its U.S. partner Kroger had placed an order for a wide range of new automated technologies.
Overall, the market showed resilience, rebounding from last week’s challenges and looking ahead to significant economic data and corporate earnings for further direction.