UK shares touch over 2-week high, GSK spin-off Haleon lists on LSE

By Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) -UK’s main stock indexes hit more than two-week highs on Monday, as an upbeat global mood lifted economically sensitive sectors, while shares of Haleon, spun off from drugmaker GSK, debuted on the London Stock Exchange.

European and Asian stock markets tracked a Wall Street rally on Friday, when better-than-expected earnings and easing worries of a big 100-basis-point rate hike by the Federal Reserve this month boosted sentiment. [.N]

The blue-chip FTSE 100 gained 1.5% and the domestically focussed midcap index climbed 0.9%. Both indexes touched their highest since June 30.

Oil majors Shell and BP were the biggest boost to the FTSE 100, rising almost 4%, as oil prices jumped on a weakening dollar and tight supplies. [O/R]

Mining giants Glencore and Rio Tinto rose more than 3% each as metal prices rose on Chinese regulators’ measures to avert a potential crisis in the country’s real estate market. [MET/L]

However, investors remained cautious ahead of earnings this week in Europe amid soaring inflation, slowing economic growth and political uncertainties.

“What we’re going to see is volatile price action. It could be an environment where earnings misses are more severely punished than the earnings beat,” said Laura Cooper, senior investment strategist, Blackrock.

Investors are also focussed on a slew of data this week, including the UK employment report, inflation and retail sales numbers which could offer clues on the health on the economy and monetary policy outlook.

Haleon started trading at 330 pence, giving it a market valuation of around 31 billion pounds ($37.00 billion) in the biggest London listing in a decade. Shares of GSK slipped 0.3%.

Euromoney surged 9.6% after a group led by French investment firm Astorg Asset Management said it would offer to buy the business-to-business information company in a 1.66 billion pound ($1.97 billion) deal.

Direct Line tumbled 12.8%, as the car insurer revised downwards its profitability outlook for the year.

($1 = 0.8377 pounds)

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)