FTSE 100 at 3-week highs as miners offset slump in Kingfisher

(Reuters) – The UK’s FTSE 100 traded at a three-week high on Monday as a weaker dollar aided metal prices, outweighing a plunge in shares of Kingfisher after the home improvement retailer issued a profit warning.

Kingfisher shares tumbled 13.5%, the biggest decliner among the FTSE 100 components, after it warned of a 45 million pound ($57 million) hit to 2025/26 profit from tax raising measures in government budgets in both the UK and France.

“Kingfisher has a growth problem and until the backdrop radically improves, it is stuck in quicksand, slowing sinking,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

Consumer sentiment remains patchy and economic growth lacklustre, which suggests darker days ahead for Kingfisher.

The broader FTSE 100 edged 0.2% higher, with industrial metal miners in the lead.

Shares of Glencore, Rio Tinto and Anglo American rose between 0.6-1.7%, as copper prices rebounded, helped by increased risk appetite after the choice of fund manager Scott Bessent as U.S. Treasury secretary. [MET/L]

Global stocks were on the front foot on hopes that Bessent might restrain debt levels. In an interview published on Sunday, Bessent told the Wall Street Journal that both tax and spending cuts were priorities. [GLOB/MKTS]

Meanwhile, Bank of England Deputy Governor Clare Lombardelli said she was more worried about the risk that inflation comes in higher – not lower – than the central bank has forecast as she made the case for only gradual reductions in interest rates.

She said recent downbeat business surveys suggested that inflation could cool while strong wage growth posed a threat in the opposite direction.

British households’ disposable income fell in October and rising inflation may subdue spending this Christmas, supermarket group Asda said.

The midcap FTSE 250 index was nearly flat but hovered near a two-week high touched late last week.

Shares in ITV jumped 10% after Sky News reported that the British broadcaster behind “I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here” and “Coronation Street” could be a takeover target for a team led by CVC Capital Partners.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)