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U.K. stocks traded higher on Thursday, as investors grew hopeful that negotiations will lead the U.S. and China to pull back from a protracted trade war.
How markets are moving
The FTSE 100 index UKX, +1.17% rose 1.3% to 7,123.62. On Wednesday, the London blue-chip benchmark finished around the break-even mark.
On Wall Street, U.S. stock futures indicated more gains at the open on Thursday, after equities staged a huge turnaround from sharp losses to close higher.
See: Brace for more ‘poor’ action by U.K. stocks, says world’s largest asset manager
The pound GBPUSD, -0.1278% traded at $1.4042, falling after the release of downbeat data on services activity, compared with $1.4079 late Wednesday in New York.
What’s driving markets
The edge seemed to be coming off global trade-war worries, as investors assessed the potential for the U.S. and China to step back from their tariff plans in negotiations over the next six months. Trade hostilities between the world’s two biggest economies, and the likely fallout in corporate damage, have weighed on global stock markets recently.
Those hopes for a trade truce boosted U.S. stocks late Wednesday, helping the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.96% pull back from an intraday loss of 510 points to close higher. Asia stocks followed suit to end with gains.
Mining stocks in London were getting a lift from that optimism, as the industry is sensitive to developments in China, a big buyer of industrial and precious metals. Copper for May delivery HGK8, +1.41% rose 4 cents, or 1.4%, to $3.052 a pound on Thursday.
Read: Here’s how a ‘trade skirmish’ could become a global ‘trade war’
Economic data
British services activity was hit by weak consumer demand and heavy snowfall in March, a survey by IHS Markit/CIPS indicated. Its services purchasing managers’ index fell to 21.7 for the month, the lowest since the July 2016 reading after the Brexit referendum, compared with 54.5 in February.
U.K. car sales fell 15.7% in March compared with a year ago, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Trades reported. That means sales have fallen for 12 consecutive months, due in part to bans in some cities on diesel vehicles, according to the SMMT.
Stock movers
Miners were big gainers, with Anglo American PLC AAL, +3.69% up 3.5%, and Antofagasta PLC ANTO, +2.66% and Glencore PLC GLEN, +3.72% each up 3%. In the commodities group, Tullow Oil PLC TLW, +3.18% added nearly 3%.
Shares of heavily-weighted bank HSBC Holdings PLC HSBA, +0.86% were up 1.2%.
Topping the decliners was health-care group BTG PLC BTG, -16.21% , as shares fell 11% after the company said it had taken an impairment charge of around 150 million pounds ($211 million) on the fair value of its emphysema treatment. BTG added that drug won't generate revenue for the next two years.