The U.K.’s FTSE 100 surged on Wednesday, continuing its strong start to 2021, driven by the index’s oil giants and banks.
The benchmark index
UKX,
climbed 3.1% to a 10-month high into afternoon trading and is already 5.3% up so far this year, as investors seemingly shrugged off the impact of a third national lockdown in England.
While mining stocks helped the index to start the year with impressive gains on Monday and energy stocks led the way on Tuesday, both sectors combined on Wednesday.
BP stock
BP,
climbed more than 6% and shares in Royal Dutch Shell
RDSB,
RDSA,
rose 5%, as oil prices rallied after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries reached an agreement on Tuesday on production curbs in February and March. Saudi Arabia will also voluntarily take an additional production cut of 1 million barrels a day. Oil prices rallied by nearly 5% following the deal, hitting 11-month highs.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures
CL00,
broke above $50 per barrel for the first time since February 2020, while March Brent crude
BRN00,
climbed to $53.61. BP stock is 13.8% up year-to-date, while rival Shell is 12.8% up. The index’s miners had another good day, led by Glencore
GLEN,
Rio Tinto
RIO,
and Anglo American
AAL,
London-listed banks also enjoyed gains as bond yields rose amid the closely-contested Georgia runoff elections in the U.S., in which the Democrats moved closer to a Senate majority.
The Associated Press called one of the two seats for Democrat Raphael Warnock early on Wednesday morning. AP also projected a slim lead for Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff over Republican Sen. David Perdue — a lead of 0.22 percentage points with 97% of the expected vote counted. The Democrats need to win both contests to take control of the Senate, as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would cast tiebreaking votes.
Read: Wall Street refused to believe the Georgia polls. Now there’s a big rotation under way
With a potential Democrat majority raising the prospect of further stimulus, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield
TMUBMUSD10Y,
climbed above 1% for the first time since March, while bond yields across Europe
TMBMKGB-10Y,
TMBMKDE-10Y,
also rose.
Shares in Standard Chartered
STAN,
surged 8.7%, while HSBC
HSBA,
rose 7.4%, and Barclays
BARC,
gained 7.2% as a result.