FTSE 100 gains as commodity-linked stocks jump

London’s FTSE 100 gained on Monday after recording its worst week since February, as heavyweight energy and mining stocks jumped on higher commodity prices, with investors awaiting key PMI numbers to judge the pace of economic growth.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 rose 0.7% with BP (LON:BP), Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSa), Glencore (LON:GLEN) and Anglo American (LON:AAL) among the top boosts.

The domestically focussed mid-cap index was up 0.5% with travel and leisure stocks leading gains.

Risks from rising coronavirus infections and concerns of a slowing economy have weighed on the FTSE 100, which has underperformed the wider European aggregate since the beginning of this year.

Among stocks, British supermarket group Sainsbury’s jumped 5.3% to the top of the FTSE 100 on reports that private equity companies were circling with a view to possibly launching bids of more than 7 billion pounds ($9.53 billion).

British airline easyJet (LON:EZJ) gained 1.6% after it named former RBS (LON:NWG) chief executive officer Stephen Hester as its chair designate.