London open: Miners pace the gains as metals prices recover
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Tuesday 03 Feb 2026
(Sharecast News) - London stocks rose in early trade on Tuesday, building on the record close a day earlier, with miners on the front foot as metals prices recovered from the recent selloff.
At 0840 GMT, the FTSE was up 0.3% at 10,367.21. At the same time, spot gold was up 5.6% at $4,933.68 an ounce, while silver was 9.6% higher at $87.06.
Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "A sense of calm descended after the precious metal ructions, opening the door for investors to buy on the dip.
"The technical and sentiment driven declines found a floor, which drove a return to a risk-on approach. After all, despite the dip in the gold price, the commodity remains up by 14% this year and by 87% over the last 12 months, which suggests a healthy correction was overdue without necessarily indicating a fundamental change."
In equity markets, precious metals miner Fresnillo was the top riser on the FTSE 100 as gold and silver prices rallied, while gold miners Endeavour, Hochshchild and Pan African Resources also advanced.
Miners more generally were on the up, with Antofagasta and Anglo American among the top performers.
AG Barr surged after it bought soft drinks maker Fentimans and juice producer Frobishers as it looked to cash in on the fall in alcohol consumption by consumers. The Irn-Bru owner bought Fentimans for £38m. No financial details on the Frobishers purchase were disclosed.
AG Barr added that full-year results were expected to be in line with expectations as revenue jumped 4% to £437m with double-digit profit growth.
Plus500 shot up after saying it has entered the US retail prediction markets segments through the launch of event-based contracts on its US B2C trading platform. The new offering includes products from Kalshi Exchange, the first regulated event-based contracts exchange in the US.
On the downside, WPP fell as French peer Publicis tumbled after results.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 10,367.21 0.25%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,515.79 0.38%
techMARK (TASX) 5,953.73 0.14%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Fresnillo (FRES) 3,800.00p 3.60%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 3,732.00p 2.53%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,534.00p 2.43%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 1,258.00p 2.23%
IMI (IMI) 2,882.00p 1.98%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,452.00p 1.97%
St James's Place (STJ) 1,571.50p 1.88%
Weir Group (WEIR) 3,302.00p 1.73%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 462.50p 1.60%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 375.50p 1.49%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 84.62p -2.49%
Relx plc (REL) 2,527.00p -2.24%
Pearson (PSON) 951.60p -1.86%
Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 11,915.00p -1.73%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,080.50p -1.68%
Experian (EXPN) 2,696.00p -1.61%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 13,844.00p -1.40%
Entain (ENT) 594.00p -1.20%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 138.75p -1.18%
The Sage Group (SGE) 954.60p -1.14%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Barr (A.G.) (BAG) 696.00p 7.08%
Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 4,538.00p 6.83%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 4,352.00p 5.89%
Ashoka India Equity Investment Trust (AIE) 253.50p 5.41%
Pan African Resources (PAF) 137.20p 4.57%
4Imprint Group (FOUR) 4,285.00p 4.13%
Dr. Martens (DOCS) 70.00p 3.78%
JPMorgan India Growth & Income (JIGI) 980.00p 3.70%
BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 920.00p 3.25%
Trustpilot Group (TRST) 186.20p 2.82%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
WPP (WPP) 296.70p -1.95%
Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) 225.50p -1.74%
Hammerson (HMSO) 350.20p -1.57%
3i Infrastructure (3IN) 353.50p -1.12%
Greggs (GRG) 1,628.00p -0.91%
Pagegroup (PAGE) 203.40p -0.88%
Playtech (PTEC) 287.50p -0.86%
Future (FUTR) 537.00p -0.83%
ITV (ITV) 82.85p -0.78%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 265.50p -0.75%
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