Airlines and oil firms fuel stock markets

Stock markets around the world had a boost yesterday after positive economic noises from the Bank of England and US Federal Reserve over the weekend and a surge in oil prices created a bullish mood.

In London, the FTSE 100 closed the day up 248.82 points, or 4.29%, at 6,048.59, dragged up by strong performances by oil majors and strong results from Ryanair boosted rival airlines.

But the overlying sense of optimism was boosted by comments from US Fed chairman Jerome Powell, suggesting in an interview that more spending could be coming to tackle the coronavirus crisis.

The pound rose 0.7% against the dollar at 1.219 dollars and fell 0.15% against the euro to 1.117 euros. But the surge in oil really pushed on shares on the FTSE 100, with Brent oil up 9% to 35.48 dollars a barrel.

This helped BP shares climb 24.3p, up 8.2%, to 320.8p and Royal Dutch Shell ‘A’ and ‘B’ shares up 102p, or 8.3%, to 1,330p and 96.2p, or 8.2% to 1271.8p respectively.

In company news, the top blue-chip performers were airlines, with International Consolidated Airlines up 18.7p, or 11%, to 188.15p and EasyJet up 52.3p, or 10%, to 551.6p.

This came on the back of Ryanair’s results revealing sales in the financial year that ended March 31 were up 10%.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Carnival, up 129.2p to 1,015p, Anglo American, up 166.4p to 1,600.2p, and IAG, up 18.7p to 188.15p.

The biggest fallers were Ocado, down 51p to 1,903.5p, Morrison, down 0.85p to 188.85p, and Auto Trader, down 2p to 500p.