𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The FTSE 100 made steady progress on Monday with a boost from defence stocks and gold miners partially offset by falls in utility stocks.

The FTSE 100 index closed up 9.0 points, 0.1%, at 9,196.34. The FTSE 250 ended 27.97 points higher, 0.1%, at 21,633.69 and the AIM All-Share finished up 4.54 points, 0.6%, at 768.64.

In Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris up 0.1%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt closed 0.6% higher.

Financial markets in New York were closed on Monday for Labor Day.

This week’s US calendar is packed with labour market data, culminating in Friday’s August jobs report.

FactSet consensus looks for a nonfarms figure of 110,000 in August compared to 73,000 in July, and an unchanged unemployment rate of 4.2%.

Attention will focus on the extent of revisions to the prior month’s figures, given the hefty revisions in July’s report.

June was revised down from 147,000 to just 14,000, the worst monthly reading since January 2021, when 183,000 jobs were shed. May’s reading was downwardly revised to 19,000 from 144,000. In total, employment in May and June combined was 258,000 lower than previously reported.

The pound firmed to 1.3548 dollars late on Monday afternoon in London, compared to 1.3510 dollars at the equities close on Friday. The euro rose to 1.1705 dollars, against 1.1699 dollars. Against the yen, the dollar was trading higher at 147.27 yen compared to 146.92 yen.

There was mixed news on the UK housing market, with a stronger-than-forecast rise in mortgage approvals in July offset by a surprise drop in house prices in August.

Data from the Bank of England showed net mortgage borrowing by individuals fell to £4.5 billion in July from £5.4 billion in June, but mortgage approvals for house purchases edged up slightly to 65,400 from 64,600, beating FXStreet consensus for a fall to 64,000. Approvals for remortgaging fell to 38,900 from 41,600.

But separate figures from Nationwide showed UK annual house price growth softened in August as affordability concerns continue to weigh on buyers.

The Nationwide house price index showed a 0.1% monthly decline in seasonally adjusted UK house prices in August, weakening from 0.5% growth a month earlier.

This underperformed against an FXStreet-cited consensus of 0.2% growth.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Anthony Codling said transaction volumes are “more important” to housebuilders than house prices.

“It doesn’t matter how high the price is if no one is buying, but with mortgage approvals just above their 10-year average, there are plenty of willing home buyers in the housing market and mortgage lenders are willing to approve the mortgages required to complete those purchases,” he added.

This points to a picture of a “healthy” housing market, he said.

On the FTSE 100, housebuilders Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Berkeley Group rose 0.3%, 1.0%, 0.1% respectively.

Elsewhere, a report showed the downturn in the UK manufacturing sector sharpened in August, as the sector contracted for the 11th month running.

Data from S&P Global showed the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 47 points in August from 48 in July, remaining below the 50-point neutral mark. It also slightly underperformed the flash reading of 47.3 points.

Weak market conditions, tariff uncertainty and subdued client confidence contributed to a sharp drop in new order intake in August, as both domestic and overseas demand fell.

BAE Systems rose 1.9% after the UK government announced on Sunday that Norway had selected the firm’s Type 26 frigate for its anti-submarine requirement for five ships, worth about £10 billion.

Analysts at Citi said the Norwegian order is worth about 10p to 15p per share for BAE Systems.

Rolls-Royce climbed 2.8% after reports suggested it is speaking to advisers about funding options for its small nuclear reactor business, which could include an initial public offer of shares.

Endeavour Mining and Fresnillo benefited from the rising gold price, advancing 3.5% and 2.1%.

Gold climbed to 3,476.94 dollars an ounce against 3,445.38 dollars on Friday.

Tesco rose 2% as analysts at UBS and JPMorgan issued positive research notes.

UBS raised its share price target to 475p from 435p and thinks robust first-half results, due in October, will set the tone for further earnings upgrades.

The broker expects the food retailer to lift the lower end of group earnings before interest and tax guidance, currently £2.7 billion to £3 billion, though likely to maintain the top end for now.

Kainos jumped 23% as it said it expects revenue to be at the top end of expectations after a strong start to the financial year.

The London-based Workday partner and provider of IT services to public sector, commercial and healthcare customers said it delivered a sequential improvement in the period from April 1 to date, building on a “solid” fourth-quarter 2025 performance.

As a result, Kainos now expects revenue for the financial year ending March 31 at the upper end of the consensus range of forecasts of £378 million to £393.4 million, which would be growth of as much as 7.1% from £367.2 million the year prior.

Shore Capital analyst Martin O’Sullivan reckons “resilient, well-managed” Kainos is primed to capitalise on the upturn in digital services that is beginning to materialise.

Flying high, shares in Immupharma leapt 99% as it announced the filing of a “ground-breaking” new patent application for its lead asset P140, the world’s first immunormalizer.

London-based Immupharma said the patent application, which provides the potential for 20 years of commercial exclusivity, discloses a novel diagnostic test and precision treatment approach.

The new diagnostic test is expected to shorten the time to diagnosis, improve patient selection for clinical trials, and enable smaller, faster and more successful trials, significantly increasing the probability of regulatory approval.

A barrel of Brent traded at 68.63 dollars (£50.68) late Monday afternoon, up from 67.41 dollars (£49.78) on Thursday.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Endeavour Mining, up 88p at 2,624p; IAG, up 11.5p at 393.6p; Rolls Royce, up 30p at 1,100p; Fresnillo, up 37p at 1,825p and Babcock International Group, up 21p at 1,037p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were SSE, down 53.5p at 1,676.5p; United Utilities, down 28.5p at 1,121.5p; National Grid, down 21.5p at 1,019.5p; BT Group, down 4.3p at 212.2p and Severn Trent, down 48p at 2,538p.

Tuesday’s local corporate calendar sees full-year results from Alumasc and half-year numbers from Oxford Nanopore, Johnson Service Group and Uniphar.

The global economic calendar on Tuesday has US manufacturing PMI data and a eurozone inflation print.

Contributed by Alliance News.