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London open: Miners pace gains as copper prices rally; Nvidia eyed
London stocks rose in early trade on Wednesday, with miners pacing the gains as copper prices rallied, as investors eyed results from US chip maker Nvidia.
At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.6% at 8,721.03.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that Nvidia’s results – due after the US close – are set to be a key driver of sentiment.
“Given the AI euphoria, which has swamped markets and led to the chip giant’s heady valuation, there is a keen interest in whether the seemingly insatiable demand for its products is going to continue,” she said.
“The arrival of low-cost Chinese model DeepSeek rattled investors but, given Nvidia’s first mover advantage and the huge infrastructure investment plans from tech giants like Meta, it’s an indication that Nvidia’s high-end chips will remain in demand. However, investors have come to expect a lot from Nvidia given its previous record beating results so it could still be a volatile ride ahead especially if Nvidia’s misses forecasts of 72% revenue growth.”
Investors were also mulling reports that Ukraine and the US have struck a minerals deal to enable Kyiv to pay back billions in military aid supplied by Washington to fight the Russian invasion.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was planning to travel to Washington on Friday to see his US counterpart Donald Trump to sign the agreement.
The Financial Times reported that Kyiv was ready to sign the agreement on jointly developing its mineral resources, including oil and gas, after the US dropped demands for a right to $500bn in potential revenue from the deal.
In equity markets, miners were on the front foot as copper prices rose, with Antofagasta, Glencore and Anglo American among the top performers on the FTSE 100.
Susannah Streeter said: “The threat of more potential tariffs from Trump is moving markets as investors assess the knock-on effect on goods across the global economy. Not only has the President re-committed to introducing 25% tariffs on imports from Canda and Mexico but he’s been scouting for other targets.
“Copper prices have shot up, as the metal is caught in the President’s sights. Mining stocks have helped drive the FTSE 100 higher in early trade after copper futures jumped around 4%, sparked by the President ordering an investigation into extra duties on imports. The plan would be to spark higher US production and put a dent in China’s huge share of the global market. Copper is sought after as a key component in renewable energy systems, for wind, solar power and electric vehicles for example, and prices have been steadily rising this year, after dipping back at the end of 2024.”
Medical products company Convatec was the standout gainer on the top-flight index, however, as it posted a jump in full-year profit and revenue and said it expects FY25 “to be another year of strong strategic progress”.
Construction and regeneration group Morgan Sindall rose as it reported a record full-year performance, hailing a “significant” contribution from the Fit Out division.
Aston Martin was also in the black as it announced plans to axe around 5% of its global workforce in a bid to cut costs, and reported a widening of its annual losses.
On the downside, Hikma Pharmaceuticals tumbled even as it posted a rise in full-year profits and revenue.
Top 10 FTSE 100 Risers
| Sponsored by Plus500 |
|
| # | Name | Change Pct | Change | Cur Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Lloyds Banking Group Plc | +2.91% | +2.00 | 70.62 |
| 2 |  |
Antofagasta Plc | +2.89% | +50.00 | 1,780.00 |
| 3 |  |
Ferguson Enterprises Inc. | +2.57% | +350.00 | 13,970.00 |
| 4 |  |
Glencore Plc | +2.57% | +8.10 | 323.70 |
| 5 |  |
Smith & Nephew Plc | +2.30% | +25.50 | 1,133.00 |
| 6 |  |
Anglo American Plc | +2.29% | +53.50 | 2,387.50 |
| 7 |  |
Barclays | +2.04% | +6.05 | 302.90 |
| 8 |  |
Banco Santander S.a. | +2.00% | +10.00 | 510.00 |
| 9 |  |
Intermediate Capital Group Plc | +1.99% | +46.00 | 2,362.00 |
| 10 |  |
Wise Plc | +1.93% | +19.00 | 1,003.00 |
Top 10 FTSE 100 Fallers
| Sponsored by Plus500 |
|
| # | Name | Change Pct | Change | Cur Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Ck Infrastructure Holdings Limited | -2.12% | -11.25 | 520.00 |
| 2 |  |
Aib Group Plc | -1.10% | -6.00 | 537.00 |
| 3 |  |
Bae Systems Plc | -0.95% | -13.00 | 1,353.00 |
| 4 |  |
Relx Plc | -0.69% | -27.00 | 3,878.00 |
| 5 |  |
Vodafone Group Plc | -0.46% | -0.32 | 68.92 |
| 6 |  |
South32 Limited | -0.39% | -0.70 | 178.90 |
| 7 |  |
Severn Trent Plc | -0.32% | -8.00 | 2,488.00 |
| 8 |  |
Coca-cola Europacific Partners Plc | -0.29% | -20.00 | 6,940.00 |
| 9 |  |
Schroders Plc | -0.26% | -1.00 | 379.20 |
| 10 |  |
Unilever Plc | -0.18% | -8.00 | 4,418.00 |
US close: Stocks mixed as weak consumer confidence, tariff fears weigh on stocks
Major indices turned in a mixed performance on Tuesday as falling consumer confidence and tariff-related fears both continue to weigh on stocks.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.37% at 43,621.16, while the S&P 500 lost 0.47% to 5,955.25 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.35% weaker at 19,026.39.
The Dow closed 159.95 points higher on Tuesday, extending modest gains recorded in the previous session despite fears about the state of the US economy.
Home Depot earnings were in early on Tuesday after the DIY retailer’s earnings narrowly beat Wall Street estimates thanks to a 2.8% uptick in comparable sales despite elevated interest rates and housing prices weighing on consumer demand, while banking giants Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase all traded lower on the back of heightened recession concerns.
In other news, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped to 4.295% amid continued concerns about the economy, its lowest level since December, while Bitcoin fell below $90,000 to a three-month low.
On the macro front, S&P/Case-Shiller‘s house price index revealed that US home prices had increased 3.9% year-on-year in December, a slight increase from the previous month’s 3.7% growth. The 10-City Composite saw an annual increase of 5.1%, up from 5% in the previous month, while the 20-City Composite posted a year-on-year increase of 4.5%, up from 4.3% in November.
Elsewhere, consumer confidence in the United States declined to below its historic average in February as pessimism about the future returned, according to data out on Tuesday from the Conference Board. The business membership and research organisation’s closely watched consumer confidence index fell by 7.0 points this month to 98.3, with both views on both the current and future environments worsening. This was the largest monthly decline since August 2021.
On another note, the Richmond Fed‘s manufacturing index rose to +6 in February, up from January’s reading of -4 and firmly ahead of market expectations of -3. The reading marked the first expansion following fifteen straight monthly declines.
Still to come, the Dallas Fed‘s manufacturing activity index fell 22 points to -8.3 in February after hitting a more than three-year high of 14.1 in January. The company outlook index fell 24 points to -5.2, while the outlook uncertainty index surged to a seven-month high of 29.2 and the production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, fell 21 points to -9.1.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Farmers, Volklec, BP, Apple
Farmers are warning of a “cashflow crisis” that has left many in the agricultural sector wondering how they will make it to the end of the year. At the annual meeting of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) of England and Wales, its president told members that “bad policy, geopolitics and unprecedented weather” had left some sectors of UK farming “in the worst cashflow crisis ever”. – Guardian
A startup has said it has learned from Britain’s faltering attempts to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles, as it signed a deal to license technology from an established Chinese firm. Coventry-based Volklec plans to manufacture batteries for cars, boats, construction vehicles and aircraft using technology from China’s Far East Battery (FEB), a maker of batteries mainly for electric bikes. – Guardian
Sir Keir Starmer’s claim that he will spend an extra £13.4bn a year defending Britain is “misleading”, economists have warned. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said raising the defence budget from 2.3pc to 2.5pc of GDP involved a comparable increase of less than half this amount. The Prime Minister announced on Tuesday that he would meet a commitment to spend 2.5pc on defence by 2027, maintaining this level for the rest of the parliament. – Telegraph
BP and the government of Iraq have reached an agreement for the energy group to work on the redevelopment of four large oil and gasfields in Kirkuk in the north of the country. The deal, which could result in BP spending $25 billion over the lifetime of the project, comes as the FTSE 100 group is expected to unwind 2030 targets to cut oil and gas production and drop its low-carbon deployment goal at its capital strategy on Wednesday. – The Times
Apple shareholders have voted to keep the iPhone maker’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, despite pressure to drop them from President Trump and conservative activists. At Apple’s annual meeting on Tuesday, shareholders rejected a proposal by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, that called on Apple to “cease DEI efforts”. – The Times
