The UK FTSE 100 rose by 1.7% on Monday following news that US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was exonerated of criminal conduct related to her email usage by US federal authorities.
The blue-chip index gained 113.64 points, closing at 6,806.90 – gains were also seen in other markets across the world.
All FTSE 100 sectors posted gains except the defensive utility group.
The jump ended a five-day losing streak for the index and was the biggest one-day increase in almost two months.
Jameel Ahmad, vice president of market research at FXTM, said in a note early Monday that the FBI news “has provided encouragement for the markets to begin a rebound away from the losses last week, most noticeably resulting with the dollar charging higher across the FX markets.”
Ahmad stressed that the news “does not confirm that Clinton will win,” as he expects “further swings for the markets…until the outcome of the U.S. election is confirmed.”
Meanwhile, Neil Wilson at ETX Capital, was quoted by the BBC as saying that after the FBI’s decision to clear Clinton, “markets are back in full risk-on mode.”
Wilson added: “Markets are effectively saying this latest email investigation never happened – as you were folks. Voters may be inclined to think differently and there is a hint of complacency in this recovery.”
FTSE Rally led by banking giant HSBC and mining companies
HSBC stock closed 4.49% higher (up 26.73 points to 621.53) after reporting better-than-expected third quarter results. Adjusted pretax profit in the third quarter, excluding one-time items, was 7% higher than the year-ago-period, climbing up to $5.59 billion. HSBC’s common equity Tier 1 ratio increased to 13.9% from 12.1% in the previous quarter.
HSBC Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver said in an interview with Bloomberg :”This is a reasonable quarter, we’ve got that momentum on costs coming through. People have talked previously about whether we can take our costs down because revenues aren’t growing. You’ll now notice we have positive jaws in the quarter and for the full nine months.”
Mining companies benefited from rising commodity prices:
| Stock symbol | Name | Current price (p) | Day change | |
| ANTO | Antofagasta Holdings | 565.00 | +33.50 | +6.30% |
| GLEN | Glencore plc | 251.20 | +13.40 | +5.63% |
| AAL | Anglo American | 1,122.50 | +51.00 | +4.76% |
| BLT | BHP Billiton plc | 1,221.50 | +55.50 | +4.76% |
Sterling dropped 1% against the dollar, at $1.2393.