London stocks rebounded on Tuesday, lifted by gains for AstraZeneca, though held back by losses for energy companies as oil prices fell amid positive headlines on the Ukraine-Russia crisis.
The FTSE 100 index
UKX,
rose 0.8% to 7,589, with the pound unchanged at $1.3541. For the week, the index is down 0.9%.
U.S. stocks and global equities were in the throes of a rally on ebbing fears of a conflict breaking out between Ukraine and Russia, which has amassed 130,000 troops on the border of that country. A global rally was sparked after Russia said some units participating in military exercises would start returning to their bases. And with equity gains came sharp losses for oil prices
CL00,
NQ00,
which fell back from 7-year highs.
That left shares of Shell
SHEL,
SHEL,
and BP
BP,
BP,
down by nearly 3% and 1.3%.
Elsewhere in the commodity sector, shares of Glencore
GLEN,
GLEN,
rose 1.3% after the commodity mining and trading group reported record adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $21.32 billion for 2021, a number that met market expectations.
But with precious and base metals prices falling — iron ore prices tumbled in Singapore on reports of a looming China crackdown over what it has deemed a crackdown in prices — other miners were under pressure. Heavyweight Anglo American
AAL,
dropped 3.5%, Fresnillo
FRES,
fell 3.8% and Rio Tinto
RIO,
RIO,
dropped 2.2%.
Elsewhere, shares of AstraZeneca
AZN,
AZN,
surged 5%, a top gainer in London after the pharmaceutical group said a Phase 3 trial of Lynparza plus abiraterone showed a 34% reduction in risk of disease progression in patients with prostate cancer.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
