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blue chips inside London Commodity prices closed higher on Thursday after hitting new record peaks on strength and well-received trading updates.
The FTSE 100 index closed 63.57 points, 0.7%, higher at 9,578.57. Earlier, it had established a new best level of 9,594.82.
The FTSE 250 rose 131.62 points, 0.6%, to 22,361.41 and Objective The All-Share gained 7.26 points, 1.0%, to 775.29.
Commodity prices advanced as oil and gold advanced strongly, boosting London’s key index.
Oil majors Shell and BP rose 2.9% and 3.7% respectively on a surge in Brent crude.
Brent oil traded at US$65.75 per barrel, up from US$62.61 late on Wednesday night.
The increase followed coordinated US-EU sanctions aimed at cutting Russian oil revenues.
Smaller energy producers moved higher, with Tullow Oil rising 7.4% and Harbor Energy rising 5.1%.
us President donald trump The sanctions would target Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two biggest oil companies, after talks with Vladimir Putin “went nowhere” after it was said.
He described the measures as “forceful”, but said he hoped they would be short-term, adding: “We hope the war will be resolved.”
The move joins another round of penalties by the EU as part of efforts to pressure Moscow to end its three-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine.
“These new restrictions are likely to have a real impact,” said Arne Lohman Rasmussen, analyst at Global Risk Management.
But Oxford Economics analyst Bridget Payne expects any strength in the oil price to be limited.
“This is a significant increase, but it does not remove the barrel from the market. It could add a modest risk premium if banks comply strictly, but any rally is likely to be limited from a surplus perspective,” Ms Payne wrote.
He expects this to impact mainly Russian revenues rather than global supplies.
Meanwhile, gold continued to have a volatile week. The yellow metal traded at $4,146.49 an ounce on Thursday, down from $4,028.64 on Wednesday.
This saw Fresnillo rise by 5.3% and Endeavor Mining rise by 3.0%.
After recent strong gains, gold prices fell sharply on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Goldman Sachs analysts wrote: “Although improving speculative call option structures have contributed to the selloff; we believe sticky, structural buying will continue going forward, and there still appears to be a risk to our end-2026 forecast of $4,900 from growing interest in gold as a strategic portfolio diversifier.”
The trading news also gave the FTSE 100 gains in a busy day of updates, with Rentokil Initial rising 8.3% and London Stock Exchange Group A jump of 7.2%.
Rentokil made a profit as it reported an improvement in its trading. North American The business is fueling optimism that plans to turn around the unit are in the works.
The Crawley, West Sussex pest control and sanitation services business said revenue at constant currencies rose 4.6% to $1.81 billion (£1.36 billion) in the three months to September, from $1.72 billion (£1.29 billion) a year earlier. Organic sales growth was 3.4%, accelerating from 1.6% in Q2 2025.
Revenue growth in North America was 4.6% with organic revenue growth of 3.4%. Organic sales growth marked an improvement from 1.4% in the second quarter and was ahead of the 1.8% consensus.
RBC Capital Markets said: “We believe this statement highlights that Rentokil is slowly getting back on track and headed in the right direction. For patient investors, we view Rentokil’s issues as fixable and see significant re-rating potential over time.”
The London Stock Exchange lifted margin guidance after strong growth in the third quarter led by Risk Intelligence and FTSE Russell Indices led by business growth helped it climb.
LSEG also announced a £1 billion share buyback and an agreement with 11 major banks for its post trade division.
At the close of London equity markets on Thursday, the pound fell to US$1.3323, down from US$1.3366 on Wednesday.
The euro was slightly lower at $1.1609, down from $1.1610. The dollar was trading at 152.71 yen against the Japanese yen, higher than its high of 151.78 yen.
In Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris closed 0.2% higher, as did the DAX 40 in Frankfurt.
Stocks were higher in New York at London’s close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1%, the S&P 500 was 0.3% higher, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.6%.
The yield on US 10-year Treasuries was quoted at 4.00%, up from 3.96% on Wednesday. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury stood at 4.58%, up from 4.55% on Wednesday.
In London, Unilever reaffirmed its annual guidance and predicted stronger growth in the second half of the year despite challenging market conditions, rising 0.8%.
However, underlying sales rose 3.9% amid a 1.5% increase in volume and a 2.4% increase in price. Underlying sales beat the company-compiled consensus of 3.7% growth.
Barclays said the beat was “driven by an extraordinary 5.5%” in North America, which “absolutely stole the show”.
On the FTSE 250, the trading update gave Hunting up 6.1%, Molten Ventures up 15%, but left AJ Bell down 2.5% and Renishaw down 2.3%.
AJ Bell chief executive Michael Summergill said budget uncertainty was causing disruption.
“Speculation over pension taxation ahead of the November Budget, which has developed in the absence of a clear and lasting government commitment to pension tax stability, creates damaging uncertainty for clients and advisers,” he said.
WH Smith declined 1.0% after Barclays downgraded it to “equal weight” from “overweight”.
Ahead of the outcome of the Deloitte review into WH Smith’s US business, Barclays said there were “too many unknowns to take a strong view”.
“Our view is that we lack the information necessary to form a clear view about the potential path to profitability, making it difficult for us to maintain conviction in an Overweight rating.
“In addition, there are several other consumer-facing stocks in our coverage universe that are trading at multiples similar to or below this multiple,” the broker said.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were: Rentokil Initial, up 33.9 pence at 441.2p; London Stock Exchange Group, up 626.0p at 9,346.0p; Fresnillo, from 110.0p to 2,190.0p; BP, up 15.55p at 436.95p; and Endeavor Mining, up 92.0p to 3,142.0p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were: easyJet, down 13.8p at 479.5p; Ashtead, down 138.0p at 5,292.0p; Schroders, down 7.0p at 372.0p; Relax, down 60.0p at 3,448.0p; and St James’s Place, down 22.0p at 1,331.0p.
Friday’s global economic diary includes US CPI data, flash composite PMI readings, plus US retail sales and consumer confidence reports.
Friday’s UK corporate calendar features lender NatWest’s third quarter results.
Contributed by Alliance News