UKX FTSE 100 Index

By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch

BP, Rio Tinto climb

The London stock market surged on Monday, following positive talks between the U.S. and China to ease trade tensions, with gains led by resource and oil stocks.

What are markets doing?

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 closed 1.6% higher to 7,062.41, after closing out the month of November with a 2% decline, and a 0.4% loss on last week

The British pound fell to $1.2716 from $1.2752 late on Friday.

What is driving the market?

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed a trade truce at the weekend, with the U.S. promising not to implement planned tariff increases on Chinese goods, on a batch of scheduled exports worth $200 billion to the U.S.

Oil prices rallied 4% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/crude-prices-rally-4-as-russia-saudis-signal-output-curbs-2018-12-03), driven by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Sa G-20. Putin and his Saudi Arabia counterpart agreeing to extend their oil deal to manage supply (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/putin-says-russia-saudis-agree-to-renew-opec-production-cuts-2018-12-02), which helped to drive optimism for the Dec. 6 OPEC meeting in Vienna. Energy markets gained upward momentum as Canadian producers also announced a cut to output.

Which stocks were active?

Trade-sensitive resource stocks witnessed the biggest gains with heavyweight Rio Tinto PLC (RIO.LN) rose 4% and Antofagasta PLC's stock (ANTO.LN) closed up 7.9%

Oil stocks also performed well, with heavyweights BP PLC (BP.LN) advancing 2.3% and Royal Dutch Shell PLC's shares (RDSA.LN) up over 1.9%.

Banks also rose, with HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBA.LN) gaining 2.4% and Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LLOY.LN) climbing by 1.8%.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 03, 2018 13:31 ET (18:31 GMT)

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