London open: FTSE edges up amid China-US de-escalation hopes
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Monday 13 Oct 2025
(Sharecast News) - London stocks edged higher in early trade on Monday amid hopes of a de-escalation in the latest trade dispute between the US and China.
At 0825 BST, the FTSE 100 was 0.2% firmer at 9,442.74.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said: "Late on Sunday afternoon, Donald Trump seemed to backtrack on his threat to impose a further 100% tariff rate on China after it applied controls to rare earth mineral exports.
"The President posted on his Truth Social account, saying 'Don't worry about China, it will all be fine!', he said that President Xi 'had a bad moment' He said that the US wants to 'help China, not hurt it !!!' This seems fairly conciliatory, even if Trump will not take responsibility for escalating this latest trade war.
"However, this tweet does not suggest that there has been a solution to the latest trade spat between China and the US, and instead Trump appears to be suggesting that financial markets have overreacted to his threat of 100% tariffs. Thus, even if there is a stock market recovery today, investors could still remain edgy this week and continue the sell off if the situation deteriorates.
"The TACO trade, 'Trump Always Chickens Out', fueled the recovery rally in April, so if it looks like the same will happen again, then we could see markets absorb Trump's tariff threats relatively quickly, and volatility could retreat at the start of this week."
In equity markets, precious metals miner Fresnillo and gold miners Hochschild and Endeavour all shone as gold prices shot higher.
Lloyds gained after saying it was putting aside a further £800m to cover compensation costs related to the motor finance mis-selling scandal. The bank said it has now made a £1.95bn provision, including both redress and operational costs, up from £1.15bn previously.
This follows the FCA's ruling last week that lenders must pay out £11bn including costs after finding "widespread failings" in how motor finance firms disclosed commission payments and commercial ties between lenders and brokers on agreements signed between 6 April 2007 and 1 November 2024.
Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "Investors chose to view the news positively since it removes a plank of uncertainty with regard to the eventual cost for the bank."
Financial services firm Legal & General was in the black after saying that Scott Wheway will succeed John Kingman as chairman following the group's next annual general meeting on 21 May 2026. Wheway, who currently serves as chairman of Scottish Widows, will join the board of Legal & General as a non-executive director and chairman designate on 2 January 2026.
AstraZeneca rose after striking a deal with the White House to cut prices of the drugs it sells in America, allowing it to avoid steep tariffs on US imports.
The blue chip said it will provide direct to consumer sales to eligible patients with prescriptions for chronic disease at a discount of up to 80% off list prices.
In return, the US Department of Commerce has agreed to delayed section 232 tariffs for three years.
AstraZeneca will onshore medicines manufacturing during that time, it confirmed, so that "all medicines sold in America are made in America".
Aviva edged up after RBC Capital Markets resumed coverage of the stock at 'outperform'.
IP Group surged as it said it was "encouraged" by the results of a recent clinical trial of a Metsara obesity drug, which could result in future sustainable royalties if approved by regulators.
The company, which invests in early stage businesses in the deeptech, life sciences and cleantech sectors, owns and exclusively licenses certain underlying IP relating to Metsera's programmes including its lead product MET-097i, a monthly injectable GLP-1 drug.
Oxford Instruments slid after an interim trading update.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 9,442.74 0.16%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,874.13 0.33%
techMARK (TASX) 5,546.56 -0.19%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Fresnillo (FRES) 2,514.00p 5.81%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,945.00p 2.26%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 2,745.00p 1.93%
M&G (MNG) 258.80p 1.53%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,149.50p 1.41%
Glencore (GLEN) 350.30p 1.29%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,045.00p 1.23%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,213.50p 1.17%
WPP (WPP) 343.30p 1.09%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 83.78p 1.06%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
BAE Systems (BA.) 1,966.00p -0.83%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 84.82p -0.73%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,221.00p -0.65%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 987.80p -0.61%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,115.50p -0.58%
SSE (SSE) 1,811.00p -0.55%
BT Group (BT.A) 183.65p -0.54%
Halma (HLMA) 3,480.00p -0.40%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 5,746.00p -0.35%
Barclays (BARC) 371.30p -0.32%
FTSE 250 - Risers
IP Group (IPO) 56.80p 6.97%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 3,240.00p 4.92%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 380.20p 4.91%
Rank Group (RNK) 130.20p 4.33%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 62.00p 3.94%
Discoverie Group (DSCV) 593.00p 2.95%
Vistry Group (VTY) 618.80p 2.38%
Ninety One (N91) 212.20p 2.12%
Bytes Technology Group (BYIT) 412.60p 2.03%
Dr. Martens (DOCS) 88.95p 1.77%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 1,820.00p -8.08%
Grafton Group Ut (CDI) (GFTU) 883.20p -2.06%
Hilton Food Group (HFG) 656.00p -1.20%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 226.20p -0.92%
Unite Group (UTG) 609.00p -0.73%
Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 214.50p -0.69%
SDCL Efficiency Income Trust (SEIT) 56.20p -0.53%
VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Ltd. (VOF) 482.50p -0.52%
Murray International Trust (MYI) 299.00p -0.50%
TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 4,430.00p -0.45%
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