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Stock prices in London, Paris and Frankfurt were higher on Monday morning after Sanae Takaichi secured an election victory, strengthening her role as prime minister of Japan; meanwhile stocks in miners rose amid a higher gold price. The FTSE 100 index opened up 26.09 points, 0.3%, at 10,397.64. The FTSE 250 was up 118.31 points, 0.5%, at 23,327.78, and the AIM all-share was up 6.38 points, 0.8%, at 813.18. The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.3% at 1,038.22, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.5% at 10,38.22, and the Cboe small companies was up 0.2% at 18,595.39. In European equities on Monday, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.4%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was up 0.9%. The pound was quoted at $1.3594 early Monday, lower than $1.3612 at the London equities close on Friday. The euro traded at $1.1852, higher than $1.1814. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JP¥156.77, down versus JP¥157.04. Gold was quoted at $5,023.00 an ounce early Monday, higher than $4,946.87 on Friday. The rise in gold prices lifted mining stocks in London, with Antofagasta, Endeavour Mining and Fresnillo among the top performers on the index, up 3.0%, 2.8% and 2.5% respectively. At the bottom of the blue-chip index, NatWest was down 4.1% after confirming a £2.7 billion deal to buy wealth manager Evelyn Partners, following earlier press reports, and announcing a new £750 million share buyback. NatWest said the acquisition from Permira & Warburg Pincus will create the UK’s ‘leading’ private banking and wealth-management business. Evelyn Partners brings £69 billion in assets under management and administration, taking the combined total to £127 billion. It expects around £100 million in annual cost synergies and said the deal will be accretive to growth and returns in its first year of ownership. NatWest will fund the purchase from existing resources, noting the acquisition is expected to reduce its common equity tier 1 ratio by around 130 basis points. The deal marks the first major acquisition for NatWest after being fully privately owned for less than a year, after the UK government sold its remaining stake in May and confirmed a £10.5 billion loss since the bank’s 2008 bailout. In Asia on Monday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index jumped 3.9% after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party secured a landslide election victory, reportedly winning more than two-thirds of seats in the powerful lower house of parliament. The result gives Takaichi, Japan’s first female prime minister who took office in late October, an unusually strong mandate just months into her term. Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said: ‘[The result] gives her party its most dominant position in decades and a strong mandate to push through an expansive fiscal agenda, particularly benefiting defense and technology.’ The result also drew a sharp response from Beijing, which warned Tokyo that reckless actions would be met with a ‘resolute response’. China and Japan have been at odds over comments by Takaichi suggesting Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan, which China claims as its territory. Chinese spokesman Lin Jian urged Japan to retract the comments and warned of consequences for any rash actions. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 1.4%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 1.8%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed up 1.9% In the US on Friday, Wall Street ended sharply higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumping 2.5% to cross the 50,000 mark for the first time ever. The S&P 500 rose 2.0%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.2%. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.23%, widening from 4.22%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted 4.88%, widening from 4.87% on Friday. Back in the UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is due to meet Labour MPs later on Monday after Morgan McSweeney quit as his chief of staff, taking responsibility for advising the prime minister to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador last year. Starmer is expected to address MPs at the weekly Parliamentary Labour Party meeting as he faces mounting pressure, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch saying his position is ‘untenable’ and claiming the UK is ‘not being governed’. On the FTSE 250, Greggs was at the bottom of the index, down 4.8%, after Jefferies cut the stock to ’hold’ from ’buy’ and slashed its price target to 1,610 pence from 2,500 pence. At the other end, Plus500 jumped 6.8% after saying it has started 2026 with ‘significant’ momentum and now expects full-year earnings to come in ahead of current market expectations. The Haifa-based trading platform provider reported 2025 pretax profit of $338.9 million, slightly up from $337.2 million a year earlier, while revenue rose to $792.4 million from $768.3 million. Trading income increased to $729.6 million from $711.6 million, while interest income rose to $62.8 million from $56.7 million. The group said momentum has continued into the new financial year, supported by active markets, new product launches such as prediction markets, and the completion of its Mehta Equities acquisition in India. It reiterated confidence in its diversified growth strategy and robust balance sheet, noting shareholder returns of $187.5 million announced on Monday, comprising dividends of $87.5 million and share buybacks of $100 million. Among smaller caps, Altona Rare Earths surged 54% after saying support from the US Trade & Development Agency is intended to help define the technical and financial pathway for its Monte Muambe project. The company said it expects to receive assay results from its fluorspar and gallium drilling campaign and described the backing as powerful external validation of the project. Brent oil was trading at $67.54 a barrel early Monday, lower than $68.47 late Friday. Still to come on Monday’s economic calendar are US consumer inflation expectations. Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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