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(Sharecast News) - Stocks ended higher in the next to last trading session of a bruising month of October, with geopolitics very much in focus.
"We've seen a positive start to the week for markets in Europe despite Israel taking early steps to push into Gaza," said CMC Markets UK chief market analyst Michael Hewson.
"The limited and incremental nature of the incursions thus far appears to be helping assuage concerns that the escalations might prompt another front opening on Israel's northern border with Lebanon and Hezbollah.
Against that backdrop, some of the more cyclical areas of the market, such as Autos and Software, figured prominently among the advancers on Monday.
Although so did defensives such as Tobacco.
Going the other way, lenders' shares were under pressure, dragged down by losses in HSBC and NatWest Group.
In the case of the former, the Asia-focused lender posted pre-tax profits for the quarter that reached $7.7bn, compared to $3.2bn in the same period last year, missing consensus estimates of $8.1bn.
Hewson attributed the weakness in bank shares to "concern over weakening net interest margins, and a difficult economic outlook."
Big Oil also weighed on the FTSE 350 as front-dated Brent crude oil futures fell back by roughly 3%.
Top performing sectors so far today
Automobiles & Parts 1,396.61 +2.48%
Beverages 23,976.13 +2.01%
Tobacco 27,374.57 +1.94%
Software & Computer Services 2,095.98 +1.93%
Food Producers 6,375.78 +1.72%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Banks 3,303.24 -1.06%
Oil, Gas and Coal 9,161.38 -0.56%
Leisure Goods 24,255.14 -0.41%
Industrial Engineering 11,789.32 -0.36%
Industrial Transportation 3,427.47 -0.29%
