London’s top stocks inched higher amid a calm and cautious session ahead of Wednesday’s key Budget announcement from the Chancellor.
Markets started the day slightly lower amid reductions in metal prices and an initial lacklustre response to China’s plans to achieve 5% economic growth this year, but an improvement in resource stocks later in the day appeared to highlight that sentiment became more positive.
The FTSE 100 rose 5.83 points, or 0.08%, to end the day at 7,646.16.
Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index, said: “China’s stocks rose overnight, and the FTSE 100 has bounced off its lows, suggesting that the market is pleased by China’s seriousness about economic growth.
“With China’s markets finally starting to rise, the resource-heavy FTSE 100 may finally join the global stock market rally, having been left behind by its US and European peers in recent months.”
Elsewhere in Europe, the other main markets were marginally lower at the close.
The German Dax index was down 0.1% at the close and the Cac 40 closed down 0.3%.
Meanwhile, the pound was up 0.12% at 1.270 US dollars and was 0.15% higher at 1.170 euros at market close in London.
In company news, Greggs saw shares rise after it revealed a meaty rise in profits for 2023.
It delivered a bumper pre-tax profit of £188.3 million for 2023, up from £148.3 million the previous year, and also said around 25,000 workers will share £17.6 million in bonuses this month as a result.
Shares in the high street bakery chain rose by 58p to 2,774p.
Daily Mirror publisher Reach swung significantly higher after it said it expects to pay out £20.2 million less to the victims of phone hacking due to a December judgment from the High Court.
Reach said it has decreased the amount in its fund set aside for what it calls “historical legal issues”, which include “phone hacking and unlawful information gathering”.
Shares in the business, which also owns the Express titles, were up 7.8p at 67.25p.
Travis Perkins shares dipped during the session after the builders’ merchants firm cautioned that the UK construction sector is unlikely to see any serious recovery until after a government is installed following the election expected later this year.
Shares dropped by 20.2p to 725.2p after it said it was also planning to possibly exit its French Toolstation business.
Spirent Communications saw shares jump by 68.6p to 177p after it agreed to a £1 billion takeover by US rival Viavi Solutions.
The price of oil was marginally lower after a shaky session as traders digested the reports over the Chinese economy.
A barrel of Brent crude oil was down by 0.09% to 82.00 US dollars as markets were closing in London.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Intertek, up 284p to 4,905p, Endeavour Mining, up 58p to 1,426p, Marks & Spencer, up 8.8p to 239p, Fresnillo, up 17.6p to 493.7p, and SSE, up 34p to 1,658.5p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Ashtead, down 536p to 5,192p, RS Group, down 26.4p to 726.4p, Antofagasta, down 60.5p to 1,777.5p, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, down 52.5p to 1,898.5p, and Croda, down 121p to 4,671p.