At the open: Relief in the City as stock markets stage mini-recovery
Stock markets recorded their first gain since the UK voted to leave the European Union – jumping in the first few minutes of trading this morning and, crucially, holding on throughout the day.
After two days of deep falls and mass trading suspensions, the bluechip FTSE 100 was up 2.5 per cent by lunchtime at 6,131.
Banking shares also recovered a little of yesterday's bloodbath. Barclays was up three per cent to 131p and Royal Bank of Scotland gained 2.9 per cent to 179p.
Housebuilders, who have suffered huge losses over the last few days, also bounced back a little in a mini-correction. Persimmon climbed 3.6 per cent per cent, and some of yesterday's other big losers alos gained ground, including International Consolidated Airlines Group, which clawed back 1.8 per cent and EasyJet, which was up by 4.1 per cent.
As things stand, the collapse in housebuilder share prices is consistent with a 5% fall in house prices next year: pic.twitter.com/0H5aSBGAV5
— Samuel Tombs (@samueltombs) June 28, 2016
The FTSE 250 – made up of mid-cap domestic firms – rallied by three per cent, though is still sharply down following last week's vote.
Analysts expect trading to be fairly jumpy for the next few days. Laith Khalaf at Hagreaves Lansdown said market makers – the buyers and sellers – were finding "pricing very difficult", leading to big ups and downs throughout the day.
He added: "You will get liquidity crunches at times like this … we expect choppiness in the days to come. Probably the weeks and months to come."
Sterling also held on to modest overnight gains as the London markets opened, one per cent higher at $1.3349 in early morning trading.