Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Putin’s ‘positive shifts’ reports move the markets

To go with story by Erikka Askeland. Oil price rise cools on hopes of easing Russia sanction supply crunch Picture shows; Energy Market Evening Update . na. Supplied by Christopher Donnan/ DCT Media Date; 09/03/2022
To go with story by Erikka Askeland. Oil price rise cools on hopes of easing Russia sanction supply crunch Picture shows; Energy Market Evening Update . na. Supplied by Christopher Donnan/ DCT Media Date; 09/03/2022

London’s stock markets swung higher on the back of reports claiming Russian President Vladimir Putin said there were “positive shifts” in talks with Ukraine, which his forces invaded two weeks ago.

Meanwhile the price of oil returned to its upward climb, but remained well short of its 13-year high from earlier in the week.

Brent crude rose by 2.54% to $112.11 per barrel when the London markets closed.

Early strong gains across global markets following the report on Putin’s comments pulled back slightly as traders became more tentative, but still helped the FTSE close higher.

The FTSE 100 ended the day up 56.55 points, or 0.8%, at 7,155.64 points on Friday.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: “It’s a strange world where markets rally on comments from the Russian president but that’s what happened during the session today.

“Putin’s hint that negotiations might be showing some progress was enough to engender a rally across markets, although some of the optimism has been trimmed.

“There is, as yet, no sign of any real deal emerging and Russia’s previous aims still appear to be in place, so this rally might go the way of so many others of late, with markets still unable to find the foundations for a sustainable bounce.”

Meanwhile, sterling gained slight traction against the euro following positive gross domestic product (GDP) figures for January.

The measure increased by 0.8% over the month, as the economy shook off the impact of Omicron before Russia invaded Ukraine weeks later.

It wiped out the 0.2% drop seen in December, and means that GDP is actually 0.8% above its pre-pandemic level, the Office for National Statistics revealed.

Although it is unlikely the economy out of the woods, as it will have to deal with the inflation shock exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The pound decreased by 0.17% against the dollar to 1.306, and rose 0.1% against the euro to 1.194.