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London’s blue chip index opened lower on Monday as a drop in metal prices impacted mining stocks just before the release of UK manufacturing purchasing managers’ index data; meanwhile UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has indicated he wants to work more closely with the EU on defence ahead of trade talks. The FTSE 100 index opened down 27.00 points, 0.3%, at 10,196.54. The FTSE 250 was down 164.02 points, 0.7%, at 23,089.34, and the AIM all-share was down 13.65 points, 1.7%, at 803.88. The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.1% at 1,017.91, the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.6% at 20,400.32, and the Cboe small companies was 0.2% lower at 18,652.33. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has indicated he wants to work more closely with Europe on defence, as trade talks between the EU and UK are due to take place. The latest meeting of the EU-UK Partnership Council will take place in the coming week, when Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds will discuss ongoing efforts to forge closer ties with the bloc. Ahead of the talks, the Prime Minister was asked during his trip to China whether there was still a way for Britain to join the EU’s new €150 billion Security Action for Europe rearmament fund. Talks about Britain joining are reported to have broken down at the end of last year, as the price for entry was thought to be too high. In European equities on Monday, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.2%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was slightly lower. Sterling was at $1.3689 on Monday morning, down from $1.3719 at the London equities close on Friday. The euro was lower at $1.1850 from $1.1881. Against the yen, the dollar was higher at JP¥154.87 versus JP¥154.30. The FTSE 100 took a hit on Monday, as mining stocks were impacted by falling metal prices. Gold was in focus on Monday, as the yellow metal was sharply lower at $4,635.30 an ounce early on Monday from $5,003.82 late Friday. The price of silver lost 8.7%, and copper slid 4.6% from Friday. Fresnillo was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 and lost 7.4%, while Endeavour Mining fell 6.9%, Antofagasta was down 5.1%, Anglo American dipped 3.6% and Glencore was 2.9% lower. Analysts said the reasons for the steep falls in silver, gold and other metals are not clear, though the recovery of the US dollar had an impact. Alongside the fall in metals, Brent oil was trading lower at $65.57 a barrel from $69.76 on Friday. As a result, BP and Shell shares were down 2.4% on Monday morning. Meanwhile, UK house price growth rose more than expected in January, according to a report. The Nationwide house price index showed UK house price growth accelerated to 1.0% year-on-year in January from 0.6% in December. It was ahead of the FXStreet-cited consensus which forecast an increase of 0.7%. The building society said house prices rose 0.3% in January on-month after taking account of seasonal effects, swung from a 0.4% fall in December, and in-line with the market consensus. This left the average UK house price at £270,873 in January, down from £271,068 in December. ‘Housing market activity also dipped at the end of 2025, most likely reflecting uncertainty around potential property tax changes ahead of the budget. Nevertheless, the number of mortgages approved for house purchase remained close to the levels prevailing before the pandemic,’ said Nationwide’s Chief Economist Robert Gardner. In Asia on Monday, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo was down 1.3%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was 2.5% lower, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong fell 2.2%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was 1.0% lower. In the US on Friday, Wall Street ended lower with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.4%, the S&P 500 lost 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.9% lower. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.21%, narrowing from 4.25% on Friday. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was unchanged at 4.85%. In London, AEP Plantations led the way on the FTSE 250 and rose 2.4% as it said own fresh fruit bunches production in 2025 rose to 1.1 million metric tonnes from 1.0 million mt. External fresh fruit bunches purchased jumped 18% to 1.2m mt from 988,900 mt. The firm said production increased due to improved output from young and matured palms in the Bengkulu and Kalimantan regions in Indonesia. Shares in 3i Infrastructure were down 5.9% after it said it enjoyed ‘another strong period’ in the three months to the end of January, apart from developments at DNS:NET. The Jersey-based infrastructure investor said DNS:NET has seen a material worsening of the lending appetite for German fibre roll-out businesses. ‘The main trigger of this deterioration was news in December of a significant restructuring of the debt at the largest altnet rolling out fibre across Germany,’ it said. Bernardo Sottomayor, managing partner and head of European infrastructure at the investment manager 3i Investments said: ‘TCR continues to perform well and the strategic review is progressing according to plan. I am also pleased that we have signed a number of bolt-on acquisitions at Joulz and ESVAGT, in both cases adding immediate incremental earnings to our portfolio. The material impact of the worsening finance environment around the fibre roll-out sector in Germany and consequently on our investment in DNS:NET is a disappointing outlier.’ On the AIM market, shares in Blue Star Capital jumped 29%. The investor focused on blockchain, e-sports, and payments said investee company SatoshiPay’s fiat-to-crypto infrastructure platform, processed over $10 million in total monthly transaction volumes in January. It said this was a ‘significant milestone’ for the company, after it processed $4.8 million in December. It has a 50% shareholding in SatoshiPay. ‘The board is encouraged by SatoshiPay’s operational progress and the momentum achieved across its key growth initiatives. With the continued integration of API partners and the expansion into the United States underway, SatoshiPay is well positioned to deliver further growth in H1 2026,’ Blue Star Capital said. Shares in Image Scan sank 36%. The Leicestershire, England-based provider of X-ray screening systems said it has been notified by NP Aerospace, a UK defence contractor, that the ‘large military customer’ has terminated the prime contract under which Image Scan was contracted to supply its ThreatScan portable Xray systems. It said the termination is not performance-related and does not come from any alleged failure to meet contractual obligations. As previously disclosed, the contract represented a 36-month programme and was expected to contribute materially to financial 2027 and 2028 revenue, Image Scan said. Image Scan entered financial 2026 with an order book of £4.7 million. It said the order book after the removal of this contract stands at over £1 million. ‘While the termination of this contract is disappointing, particularly given the significant effort invested by Image Scan to secure and support the programme, the board believes that the remaining order book and cash position provide a good platform from which to manage the impact of this decision and continue to execute the group’s broader strategy,’ Image Scan said. Still to come on Monday’s economic calendar is the UK manufacturing PMI reading, due shortly, with the US figure due later this afternoon. Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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