FTSE roars over 8000 as miners and oil react to confidence on Wall Street

THE FTSE 100 index was back over 8000 and in record territory after a resurgence fuelled by miners, oil stocks and Wall Street’s Magnificent Seven.

The jump of 1.2% or 98.46 points to 8022.26 — above February 2023’s closing bell high of 8014 — represented a swift turnaround after the jitters caused by a hot US inflation reading.

Even though the US may have to wait until December for its first interest rate cut, Apple and Nvidia shares rallied 4% and the tech-focused Nasdaq rose 1.7% to a fresh record.

Last night’s rally by heavyweights on Wall Street set the tone for today’s strong London session, with big-name commodity stocks higher on elevated prices of copper, oil and gold.

They included Shell, which hit a record 2901p after adding another 2% or 45.5p, and BP after extending gains for the past month to 12% with a rise of 12.8p to 532.7p. Their momentum came with a barrel of Brent Crude changing hands above $90.

And with copper prices near a 15-month high, the FTSE 100 also featured advances of 3% for Glencore, Antofagasta and Anglo American.

Fresnillo, which is the world’s leading silver producer and one of Mexico’s largest gold firms, led the risers’ board after gold traded above $2390 an ounce for the first time.

Shares gained another 27.5p to 606p, continuing the recovery from a 15-year low of 445p in March.

The advance for gold due to safe haven and central bank buying has continued despite the negative impact of tight US monetary policy on non-interest bearing bullion.

The uncertain outlook for mortgage rates also failed to dent housebuilding stocks after Taylor Wimpey rose 4% or 5.3p to 135.5p and Persimmon added 41.5p to 1307p.

Their progress followed today’s reassuring GDP reading and the support of JP Morgan after the bank unveiled improved price targets of 150p and 1510p respectively.

On a shortened fallers’ board, Prudential fell 7.4p to 709.2p after sentiment towards the Asia-facing insurer was impacted by a 2.2% slide for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index.

Mid-cap stocks experienced a strong end to the week, with the FTSE 250 index up 166.85 points to 19,953.72. Hochschild Mining rose 4p to 147p and the construction firm Morgan Sindall improved 65p to 2330p.