London shares supported by easing banking fears

Equity markets bounced back on Monday as banking fears eased on the news that lender First Citizens Bank agreed to take over most of failed Silicon Valley Bank. Banks outperformed, as well as energy after reports that the UK government will offer oil and gas companies relief from a windfall tax. The FTSE 100 rose 0.9% and this morning, it gained 0.5%.

UK banks were up 1.3% at 9am, on top of Monday's 1.4% gain, after Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said that British financial institutions were resilient amid headwinds in the global banking system. He added that fighting inflation remains the central bank’s focus.

Shares of Swiss bank UBS were up more than 2% while Credit Suisse advanced more than 3% after CEO Ralph Hamers said the bank considers this takeover of Credit Suisse as a growth opportunity, in an internal memo seen by Reuters.

Commodities continued to rise as oil major BP Plc made an offer to acquire 50% of Israeli gas producer NewMed Energy for $4 billion, in partnership with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.

In other news, UK regulators have hit betting group William Hill with a £19.2mn fine for failures in anti-money laundering controls.

 

Things to read today:

We are all secretaries now (Financial Times)

Markets Are Wrong on US Rate-Cut Bets, BlackRock Says (Bloomberg)