FTSE 100 watch: Steady oil sends Footsie to four-month high

The FTSE 100 has advanced in today’s session, hitting a four-month high, with a recovery in the oil price propping up investor sentiment and fuelling demand for resource stocks. In individual movers, shares in Associated British Foods (LON:ABF) have been outperforming the broader market after the Primark owner updated investors on its recent trading.

As of 12:20 BST, the Footsie had added 19.19 points, to stand 0.30 percent higher at 6,372.71, having touched 6,402.58 points earlier in the session, marking the index’s highest level since December last year. Fresnillo (LON:FRES) is leading other London-listed miners higher, having surged 3.56 percent to 1,048.00p.
“We’ve had a commodity-driven rally since February,” Thames Capital Markets’ chief strategist Nav Banwait told Reuters, cautioning that there could be a danger of “a pullback soon, given the lingering uncertainty over the Brexit vote in June on Britain’s membership of the EU”.

AB Foods’ share price meanwhile has added 1.70 percent to 3,404.00p after the company posted a rise in its adjusted operating profit for the 24 weeks to the end of February.
“ABF offers investors compelling exposure to secular growth trends in retail,” Liberum said in a ‘buy’ note, as quoted by the Guardian. “We estimate that Primark can double sales and profits over the next 5 years boosted by the occasional store parcel. The shakeout in EU sugar should lead to industry consolidation, lower beet prices and cost savings boosting Sugar profits mid-term.”
HSBC Holdings (LON:HSBA) has been another notable Footsie riser after the group’s chief executive signalled that Europe’s biggest bank was considering a share buyback. HSBC’s shares are currently changing hands 1.13 percent higher at 453.35p.
**The FTSE 100 was 0.30 percent up at 6,372.83 points as of 12:25 BST on April 19, 2016.**