(Reuters) -British shares started the week on a positive note after a slew of upbeat business updates as investors weighed the impact of U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to end his re-election campaign.
The blue chip closed 0.5% higher while the midcap rose 0.3%, with both indices recovering from Friday’s declines.
Major Wall Street indexes traded higher as investors assessed Republican candidate Donald Trump’s chances of a second term in the Nov. 5 election after Biden withdrew from the race.
“If you were hoping the markets would enter the new week having shaken off much of the volatility of the past week, that’s what you actually got,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG Group.
Most subsectors traded higher as the market recovered from Friday’s declines caused by weaker UK retail sales and weaker commodity prices.
The release of US gross domestic product and inflation data later this week could shed light on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy path, with investors also eyeing earnings from Wall Street giants including Alphabet (NASDAQ:) and Tesla (NASDAQ: ), as a guideline for the market.
Rentokil rose 7.8% to the top of the FTSE 100 after a report revealed that former BT Group (LON:) head Philip Jansen is working on a private equity-backed takeover bid for the pest control company.
Entain rose 1.8% after the sports betting and gaming group said Gavin Isaacs has been appointed as its new CEO, effective September 2.
Putting pressure on the midcap index, Wizz Air fell 10% after Irish rival Ryanair missed quarterly profit expectations.
Ocado (LON:) rose 12.2% after the online grocery and technology group said its US partner Kroger (NYSE:) had placed an order for a wide range of new automated technologies.
