Commodity, consumer staples stocks drive FTSE 100 higher, Barclays falls

By Devik Jain

(Reuters) – London’s FTSE 100 climbed on Tuesday as market participants hoped for progress in Russia-Ukraine peace talks, with consumer staples and commodity stocks leading the advance, while Barclays hit a three-week low following a discounted stake sale.

The blue-chip index rose 0.9%, with Dove soap-maker Unilever, spirits-maker Diageo and oil major Shell Plc gaining between 1.4% and 2%, and providing the biggest boost.

Industrial miners climbed, with Anglo American up 2.1% after Liberum upgraded the stock to “buy” from “hold”.

The domestically focussed midcap FTSE 250 index advanced 0.8%.

Market participants focussed on the first face-to-face talks between Russia and Ukraine in nearly three weeks that could lead to a ceasefire, even though chances for a breakthrough were played down.

“You’ve got the situation in Eastern Europe, although the markets have sort of shrugged off a lot of the risk associated with that. The FTSE 100, for instance, is back where it was pretty much before the invasion started,” said Michael Brown, head of market intelligence at Caxton FX.

“So unless we get some kind of a peace deal there, all eyes are going to remain on comments that we get from monetary policymakers as markets continue to adjust their expectations of policy for the remainder of this year.”

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Monday the situation about further interest rate hikes was very volatile after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine propelled energy prices higher and that the central bank had started to see evidence of an economic slowdown.

Among stocks, Barclays Plc fell 4.1% to the bottom of the FTSE 100 after one of its top investors offloaded stock roughly equivalent to a 3% stake in the lender.

Royal Mail Plc slipped 3.4% after Deutsche Bank downgraded the centuries-old postal company’s stock to “sell” from “buy”.

Polymetal surged 37% after the Russian precious metals producer said it was considering various options to boost shareholder value, as the Ukraine crisis batters its shares.

(Reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Subhranshu Sahu)