London's FTSE 100 closed 108.93 points higher, or 1.0%, at 10,782.87 on Monday, as a falling oil price and a rally in US tech stocks lifted sentiment. The FTSE 250 ended up 202.02 points, 0.8%, at 24,706.34, while the AIM all-share added 7.66 points, 1.0%, at 761.39.
In Europe, Paris's CAC 40 rose 1.2% and Frankfurt's DAX 40 climbed 1.7%. Across the Atlantic, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.8%, the S&P 500 gained 2.0%, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.4% around the time of the London close.
Nvidia slides on CEO scandal
The gains came despite a 5.7% fall for chip maker Nvidia, as investors weighed the fallout from an investigation into chief executive Jensen Huang's relationship with a woman suspected by US intelligence officials of spying for China. The executive, Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, has links to Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based Nvidia customer that has faced allegations of attempting to divert advanced US chips to China.
On Sunday, Mr Huang admitted the affair and apologised to his family and colleagues. Nvidia said its board had opened an independent investigation but stated that "the board has no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised." Technology analyst Dan Ives said it "is a black eye moment for Jensen and will spark multiple congressional inquiries at a minimum and will create an overhang."
China on Monday called the claims that it had spied on Mr Huang "baseless." The issue was initially flagged by short seller Culper Research in May, and subsequently picked up by the New York Times and others. Culper Research's report challenged Nvidia's public assertions that its direct compute exposure to China had dropped to zero following US trade restrictions implemented in April 2025, and said Mr Huang was maintaining an "uncomfortably close relationship" with Megaspeed's Ms Huang.
Broader market optimism
Away from Nvidia, the mood was brighter after last week's volatility that followed the Democrats' "blue wave" electoral success. Morgan Stanley called the sell-off "unwarranted" and "overdone," saying in a research note: "Over the past week, the market has undergone an earthquake event, with significant uncertainty around the impact of the midterms on the data centre build-out, the trajectory of the cycle, and implications for global stocks. We see the market moves as an overreaction and think the ultimate impact will be a push-out of some projects from 2028 to 2029, rather than a derailing of the capex story."
US inflation figures due Tuesday will be the next market test, after last week's blow-out nonfarm payrolls numbers. Goldman Sachs expects a 0.2% increase in October core consumer prices on-month, in line with consensus, and sees headline consumer price growth of 0.2% on-month, below the 0.3% consensus.
The pound was quoted at 1.3415 dollars late Monday afternoon, up from 1.3362 dollars at the same time on Friday. Against the euro, sterling slipped to 1.1974 euro from 1.1989 euro. The euro rose to 1.1203 dollars from 1.1149 dollars, while the dollar fell against the yen to 158.05 yen from 158.34 yen. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.88%, stretched from 4.87% on Friday, and the 30-year yield widened to 5.27% from 5.26%.
Oil falls on US-Iran peace hopes
Supporting equity markets was a further fall in the oil price, on hopes for diplomatic talks aimed at ending the US-Iran war. US President Donald Trump on Sunday told CNN it was "highly unlikely" that fighting with Iran would resume so long as talks progressed, and suggested economic pressure would force Iran's leaders into accepting a peace deal on US terms. "They're a failing nation. It just came out, you saw this year, 301% inflation," Mr Trump claimed. "They're withering away financially. We've hit them militarily. We could finish them off."
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi suggested peace talks had been paused while the political fallout of the Democratic Party's landslide victory was assessed. Brent oil was trading at 94.27 dollars a barrel on Monday, down from 97.66 dollars late Friday. Gold was quoted at 4,116.80 dollars an ounce, up from 4,058.03 dollars.
On the FTSE 100, BP and Shell dipped 0.5% and 0.6% respectively, while miners rose on a lofty copper price, with Antofagasta up 6.2% and Anglo American up 5.2%. Airlines and aerospace firms benefited from the lower oil price and peace hopes, with IAG up 3.5%, Rolls-Royce up 4.8%, and Melrose Industries up 3.3%. On the FTSE 250, Wizz Air gained 6.1% and Raspberry Pi rose 4.6%.
Kainos shares plunged 12% after delivering half-year results. The London-based IT support firm confirmed full-year guidance as revenue and profit beat expectations, but gross margin declined to 43.1% from 48.0%, mainly reflecting increased use of contractors and partners. AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said investors were "unimpressed" by the margin pressure and an "underwhelming" full-year outlook.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Antofagasta, up 192.0p at 3,305.0p, Anglo American, up 193.0p at 3,894.0p, Fresnillo, up 125.0p at 2,638.0p, Babcock International, up 48.0p at 1,054.5p, and Rolls-Royce, up 59.4p at 1,320.6p. The biggest fallers were Imperial Brands, down 74.0p at 2,899.0p, Haleon, down 8.1p at 330.8p, Whitbread, down 64.0p at 2,763.0p, British American Tobacco, down 90.0p at 4,477.0p, and Smith & Nephew, down 20.5p at 1,140.5p.
Tuesday's global economic calendar includes trade data from China overnight and US inflation figures later in the day. The local corporate calendar has half-year results from Vodafone and a trading statement from Watches of Switzerland.
