FTSE 100 finishes higher as pubs, Morrisons rally, oil steady as OPEC+ meets By Investing.com

Key Points

• FTSE 100 closing price of 7164.47, +0.58%
• Morrisons shares jump as takeover agreed, PE circling
• Pubs and restaurants rally as restrictions set to be eased
• Oil steady as OPEC+ tries to resolve differences
• Bitcoin struggles to break above $35K

By Samuel Indyk

Investing.com – The FTSE 100 finished Monday’s session in the green, supported by travel & leisure stocks and supermarkets.

Morrisons (LON:MRW) led the way higher after the company accepted a takeover offer from Fortress worth £6.3 billion, with other suitors also interested. Apollo Global Management confirmed they were considering making an offer for the company, while Clayton, Dubilier & Rice have already had a bid rejected for the company. Other supermarket chains, such as Tesco (LON:TSCO), Sainsbury ‘s (LON:SBRY) and Marks and Spencer (LON:MKS) rose in sympathy on hopes that others might get snapped too.

“With a trio of hungry firms circling, it shows there is a big appetite for a bite of the UK supermarket sector,” said Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HRGV) senior investment and markets analyst Susannah Streeter.

The UK hospitality sector also rallied ahead of Boris Johnson’s press conference at 17:00BST. The prime minister is expected to confirm that the final set of Covid restrictions can be eased on 19th July, allowing venues to reopen and the “rule of six” to be scrapped. The news lifted pubs listed in London, including J D Wetherspoon (LON:JDW), Mitchells & Butlers (LON:MAB) and Marston’s (LON:MARS).

WTI and Brent crude futures traded in a range ahead of the key OPEC+ meeting. Little progress was made over the weekend with the United Arab Emirates continuing to block a plan that had support from all the other nations, including Russia and Saudi Arabia. The cartel is said to be discussing a new scenario whereby OPEC+ will increase production by 400,000 barrels per day every month until April 2022, rather than the mostly agreed date of December 2021.

Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies struggled to gain much traction with Bitcoin briefly poking its head above $35,000 before falling back below $34,000.

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