The London market was stronger on Monday after it rebounded from concerns over the Microsoft IT outage which disrupted a raft of industries.
Disruption from the outage and Joe Biden’s decision to step down from the US presidential race did little to dampen trading at the start of the week.
Nevertheless, airline firms in London were notably lower after Ryanair said lower prices over spring pushed profits down 46% in the latest quarter, weighing on profitability concerns across the sector.
The FTSE 100 finished 43.06 points, or 0.53% higher, to end the day at 8,198.78.
Elsewhere in Europe, sentiment was even more positive. The Cac 40 in France ended 1.16% higher and the Dax index was up 1.35% at the close.
Across the Atlantic, tech stocks helped drive a strong start to trading in the US.
The Nasdaq and S&P both rebounded from a poor previous week, with Tesla and Nvidia among those with gains.
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: “Investors have had a weekend to digest the moves in markets last week, when a rotation to small caps finally seemed to be upon us.
“At present there seems to be little impact from Biden’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 election, with investors likely waiting for the first real Harris v Trump polls to emerge.
“Indices are pushing higher in Europe and the US, though Ryanair’s warning has dragged the airlines down across Europe.”
Meanwhile, the pound was flat at 1.291 US dollars and was down 0.03% at 1.186 euros.
In company news, Ladbrokes and Coral owner Entain was in the green after the betting giant appointed Gavin Isaacs as its new chief executive.
Mr Isaacs, who was previously chairman of Games Global and was on the board of Entain’s US rival DraftKings, will join the sports betting giant on September 2.
Investors cheered the news after a lengthy search for the new boss, with shares up 1.8% to 656p.
Rentokil was the FTSE 100’s strongest riser following reports over the weekend that it is being targeted for a private equity-backed takeover.
The Sunday Times reported that former BT boss Philip Jansen is in talks with private equity firms over a plan that would see him installed as executive chairman.
Shares in Rentokil climbed by 7.8% to 482.9p as a result.
Retail real estate firm Hammerson made gains after it sold off its stake in Value Retail, the owner of Bicester Village, in a deal worth £1.5 billion. Its shares finished 3.3% higher at 30p.
Aim-listed wine firm Gusbourne finished lower after it became the latest English wine firm to be put on the market for a potential sale. Shares dipped 2.3% to 64.5p.
The price of oil dropped to its lowest for a month after the IEA (International Energy Agency) pointed towards slower growth in oil demand this year than previously expected.
A barrel of Brent crude oil was down by 0.2% to 79.96 US dollars as markets were closing in London.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Rentokil, up 34.8p at 483.9p, Burberry, up 22.2p at 719.8p, Admiral up 63p at 2,629p, Intermediate Capital Group, up 48p at 2,138p, and Spirax, up 180p at 8,630p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were EasyJet, down 32.7p to 426.3p, IAG, down 5.8p to 164.2p, Endeavour Mining, down 35p to 1744p, Fresnillo, down 12p to 604p, and Next, down 168p to 8772p.
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