FTSE 100 Advances; BP Rises As Activist Hedge Fund Elliott Takes Stake

(RTTNews) - Th U.K. market climbed to fresh record highs Monday morning, lifted by strong gains in one of the world's largest oil companies & gas company BP Plc.

Investors are also awaiting U.S. President Donald Trump's next moves on tariffs. Trump said over the weekend that he would announce new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports, raising fears of a brewing global trade war and its potential impact on the global economy.

China's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods take effect later in the day. Trump has stated that he would announce reciprocal tariffs on Tuesday or Wednesday that mirror the tariffs those countries charge on American exports.

The benchmark FTSE 100 was up 42.70 points or 0.49% at 8,743.23 a little while ago.

BP shares are up nearly 6.5% after activist investor Elliott Investment Management built a stake in the company. Elliott's involvement at BP will reportedly result in an overhaul of the struggling firm's strategy and a shake-up of its board.

In mid- January, there were reports that BP was planning to cut around 4,700 jobs, representing over 5% of its workforce, as part of a major cost-reduction initiative.

BP CEO Murray Auchincloss earlier had stated that the company intends to deliver at least $2 billion of cash savings by the end of 2026.

Vistry Group is up almost 3% and Airtel Africal is gaining about 2.5%. Vodafone Group is climbing nearly 2%. Fresnillo, Barrat Redrow, Prudential, Taylor Wimpey, British American Tobacco, Land Securities, Halma, Berkeley Group Holdings, Centrica, Haleon and Segro are up 1 to 1.7%.

Imperial Brands, Howden Joinery, B&M European Value Retail, Kingfisher, ICP and HSBC Holdings are also notbaly higher.

BAE Systems, IAG and SSE are down 1.6 to 2%. Weir Group, Shell, EasyJet, Compass Group, Rio Tinto, DCC and Standard Chartered are down 0.3 to 1%.

On the economic front, a report compiled by S&P Global said UK job vacancies decreased the most since August 2020 as higher cost of employing staff due to the changes in government policies weighed on hiring activity.

Vacancy numbers fell especially sharply for permanent worker, with the rate of contraction accelerating for the fifth successive month, the KPMG/REC Report on Jobs survey revealed. That said, temp workers dropped the most since June 2020.

There was a steep drop in permanent placements in January as falling demand for workers and a general air of business uncertainty damped the labor market.