8.15am: Shell and BP get FTSE off to positive start
The FTSE 100 has risen 14 points to 10,450 in opening trades.
Oil behemoths Shell and BP are doing most of the heavy lifting, up 1.2% and 1.4%.
Top of the leaderboard is Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, a major shareholder in SpaceX, as more details are shared on Elon Musk’s rocket company and its targeted $1.75 trillion IPO.
7.56am: Hunting and Universal Music
It’s a very quiet morning in terms of company news, particularly for FTSE 350 companies.
Extra attention for Hunting then, as it flags winning almost $68 million of orders for a new offshore development in Guyana, most of which are for its titanium stress joint (TSJ) product line, which is used on floating, production and storage vessels.
Elsewhere, WH Smith has confirmed that Leo Quinn assumes his role of executive chair today, with Andrew Harrison stepping down from the board and resuming his role as UK divisional CEO.
Looking further afield, Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square said it is planning to buy Universal Music Group in a cash and shares deal, where shareholders will get €9.4 billion in cash and 0.77 shares of new stock for each share they hold.
7.29am: UK financial services had best quarter in 30 years
A sliver of good news comes from the CBI this morning, where its long-running survey finds that financial services activity rebounded sharply in the first quarter, with business volumes rising at the fastest pace since 1996.
Sentiment also turned positive for the first time since mid-2024, while profitability recovered after a prolonged decline, pointing to a stronger start to the year.
However, pressure on margins intensified, with average spreads narrowing at the fastest rate since late 2024.
Firms expect growth to continue next quarter, though uncertainty around demand has understandably surged in the past month due to the war in the Middle East, with concerns at their highest level since 2012.
“The sector still appears to be digesting the implications of conflict in the Middle East. This is not surprising given that financial services firms are at the epicentre of volatile market moves, and that the economic impact of the conflict is still crystallising,” says CBI deputy chief economist, Alpesh Paleja.
The CBI wants the government to “double down” on delivering its financial services growth and competitiveness strategy, with priorities including continuing work to streamline unnecessary regulation, accelerating delivery of the Mansion House reforms, and deploying capital through finance programmes such as the British Business Bank.
7.16am: FTSE 100 set to start week lower
The FTSE 100 has been predicted to start its holiday-shortened week slightly in the red, as markets eye Donald Trump’s deadline tonight for Iran to agree a deal.
The US President has threatened that if an agreement is not made before 8pm Eastern Time tonight (1am London), the country’s bridges and power plants will be destroyed.
London’s blue-chip share index is down 14 points on the futures market, having rebounded roughly 464 points last week to 10,436.29.
US stock markets were open on Monday while Europe took an extra day off for Easter, with the tech-powered Nasdaq adding 0.5%, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones edging up 0.4%.
Asian stocks are mixed this morning, with the Hang Seng down 0.7% in Hong Kong, but Japan’s Nikkei and Korea’s Kospi up 0.2% and 0.6%.
Brent crude oil has climbed back above $111 a barrel this morning, after trading as low $107 yesterday.
“Sentiment has turned more cautious this morning as investors grapple with President Trump’s new deadline,” says macro analyst Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank.
“In terms of Trump’s latest ultimatum to Iran, the US President shared the 8pm ET Tuesday deadline on social media on Sunday and then referred to it several times yesterday as he demanded that Iran strikes a deal that ‘that’s acceptable to me’, while threatening intensified attacks against Iran that would destroy ‘every bridge’ and take ‘every power plant’ out of business.
“Notably, Trump said that a deal should include ‘free traffic of oil’, calling reopening the Strait of Hormuz ‘a very big priority’.
“So a seeming shift from previous suggestions that reopening the straits was not a core objective for the US.”
