U.K. stocks rallied on Tuesday as upbeat U.S. data released overnight and signs of rising car sales added to investor optimism about an economic recovery.
New car registrations in the U.K. climbed 12 percent annually in March, the first month of growth since August, an industry body said.
The month represents the anniversary of the first lockdown in March 2020, when the pandemic brought Britain to a standstill and registrations plunged 44.4 percent.
The benchmark FTSE 100 jumped 80 points, or 1.2 percent, to 6,817 as trading resumed after a long holiday weekend.
Miners Anglo American, Antofagasta and Glencore rose 3-4 percent on optimism for a swift economic recovery.
BP Plc climbed 3.1 percent and Royal Dutch Shell added 1.1 percent as oil prices rebounded on dollar weakness.
Airline easyJet was little changed and Ryanair lost about 1 percent after Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned against booking foreign summer holidays.
Low-cost airline Wizz Air Holdings gained half a percent after reporting its passenger traffic figures for March.
Oxford Biomedica, a gene and cell therapy group, rallied 2.2 percent after it signed a new three year Development & Supply Agreement with German Pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim for the manufacture and supply of various types of viral vectors.
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