(Sharecast News) - London stocks had erased earlier losses to trade a touch higher by midday on Monday, helped by a strong showing from gold miners, as investors mulled US President Donald Trump's announcement over the weekend of a 15% global tariff in response to the Supreme Court's ruling on Friday.
The FTSE 100 was up 0.1% at 10,696.94, reversing earlier declines.
Trump said on Friday that he would introduce a new 10% global tariff, but this was upped to 15% on Saturday.
In a post on Truth Social, the US President said the new tariffs would be "effective immediately".
He wrote: "I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been 'ripping' the US off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level."
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "There is some trepidation in the air after last Friday's ruling from the Supreme Court.
"While tariffs are generally not seen as market friendly, investors had absorbed the trade policies announced by the Trump administration last year and were just hoping for some certainty and stability.
"Last week's intervention from the Supreme Court delivers none of that - President Trump's subsequent announcement of 10% global levies, rising to 15% over the weekend, can stay in place for a few months before they require congressional approval.
"This creates yet another cliff edge and the events of recent days have left global governments scrambling to work out whether the deals they had agreed with the US will be affected and also whether money collected by the US government will have to be paid back."
Mould said the market reaction so far has been fairly mild, noting that the FTSE 100 is benefiting from its precious metals allocation as gold prices move higher amid the uncertainty.
Precious metals miner Fresnillo and gold miners Hochschild and Endeavour all shone.
Heavily-weighted miners more generally were on the rise, with Antofagasta, Glencore and Anglo American all higher.
JD Sports Fashion surged to the top of the FTSE 100 saying it was returning 200m to shareholders through share buybacks in its 2026/27 financial year.
MoneySuperMarket owner Mony Group rallied as it reiterated guidance despite "significant" headwinds in car insurance weighing on annual earnings.
On the downside, Johnson Matthey tumbled after saying it had agreed to cut almost half a billion pounds from the sale price of its catalyst technologies business to Honeywell after reports the American conglomerate was thinking about walking away from the deal.
Honeywell will now pay 1.33bn, down from the previously agreed 1.8bn last May as Johnson Matthey moves to focus on its car pollution filters platinum group metals processing businesses.
Bloomberg reported on Sunday that Honeywell was considering walking away because of concerns over regulatory approvals and business milestones.
Russ Mould said: "Johnson Matthey has served shareholders a nasty shock with the news not only of a delay to the sale of its Catalyst Technologies division to US industrial outfit Honeywell but also a big cut in the sale price.
"At least there is no questioning the logic of a sale - with the agreement with Honeywell to slash the price tag reflective of the weak performance of the business unit in the current financial year.
"Catalyst Technologies provides process technologies and catalysts to the chemicals and oil industries, with a focus on licensing technology for producing sustainable aviation fuels, low-carbon hydrogen, and methanol. Several of its licensing opportunities have been deferred of late and the market backdrop in general has been unhelpful.
"Johnson Matthey already faces disruption to its biggest profit engine - the catalytic converter focused Clean Air division - from the move to electric vehicles. A move to a new business model emphasising cash generation may be progressing well and trading may be in line with expectations but it can ill afford the kind of setback it has endured today."
NCC Group was under pressure after Anthropic launched a new security feature into its Claude AI model.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 10,696.94 0.09%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,679.22 -0.30%
techMARK (TASX) 6,092.97 -0.85%
FTSE 100 - Risers
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 82.58p 5.63%
Fresnillo (FRES) 4,028.00p 4.51%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,256.00p 3.50%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 4,078.00p 2.15%
Centrica (CNA) 191.65p 1.81%
St James's Place (STJ) 1,305.50p 1.67%
Glencore (GLEN) 515.10p 1.60%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,672.00p 1.52%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,828.50p 1.47%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 278.20p 1.24%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Smurfit Westrock (DI) (SWR) 3,402.00p -6.62%
Mondi (MNDI) 893.80p -3.52%
BAE Systems (BA.) 2,120.00p -2.08%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,680.00p -1.83%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 7,760.00p -1.82%
The Sage Group (SGE) 806.00p -1.61%
ICG (ICG) 1,711.00p -1.55%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,399.00p -1.48%
Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 8,940.00p -0.82%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 6,366.00p -0.78%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Raspberry PI Holdings (RPI) 399.60p 4.44%
Pan African Resources (PAF) 174.60p 3.93%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 4,876.00p 3.52%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 761.00p 3.33%
Quilter (QLT) 193.10p 2.60%
Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 518.00p 2.37%
TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 4,775.00p 2.36%
Mony Group (MONY) 155.60p 1.77%
Dunelm Group (DNLM) 991.50p 1.59%
Lion Finance Group (BGEO) 10,400.00p 1.46%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,919.00p -16.71%
NCC Group (NCC) 126.60p -4.67%
GB Group (GBG) 193.00p -3.50%
Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) 131.60p -3.24%
Ceres Power Holdings (CWR) 289.20p -2.95%
Applied Nutrition (APN) 253.25p -2.60%
Softcat (SCT) 1,107.00p -2.29%
HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited A Shs (HVPE) 3,075.00p -1.76%
Mitie Group (MTO) 179.80p -1.75%
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 779.00p -1.64%
13.16 (0.12%)
39.82
0.00