Tuesday, 5th May: A rebound in oil prices helped lift the FTSE on Tuesday. The likes of BP and Shell were both trading higher by circa 5.8% and 5.5% by mid-day and Brent crude was up 7.24% at $29.17 per barrel. Behind the rally of oil prices seems to be the production cuts, combined with reopening measures across the US and Europe.
For a small part of the day, Carnival were trading just above the oil players, up more than 6.0% and at the top of the index in the afternoon following an update which included a further delay of operations for most of the fleet until August 31st. They also made it clear that operations will be dependent upon government approvals. Regardless of the extended pause of operations, the group remained at the top-end of the index for the majority of the day.
However, towards the end of the day, BP managed to claim the top spot as they closed circa 6.3% higher.
Sterling did not move much in the day, and towards the end of trading it was up only 0.01% against the dollar at $1.24468. At the same time, it was up 0.62% against the euro at €1.1485.
The FTSE 100 closed a strong 1.66% higher at 5849.42, and the FTSE 250 closed 0.94% higher at 16101.40.