After closing at a 21-month high of 5780.35 last night, the FTSE 100 fell slightly in morning trading but is holding steady around 5765.
By 10.30am (London time), the FTSE 100 index was trading 14.25 points (-0.25%) below its previous close, at 5766.10, while the broader FTSE 250 has reversed its own slow start into a gain of 7.60 points (+0.07%), up to 10441.61.
Looking across to Europe, the leading continental indices also started in retreat, but have already recovered much of the morning’s losses. France's CAC40 is down by 5.85 points (-0.14%) to 4048.09, while the Dax in Germany has turned the morning into a 0.01% gain, holding steady at 6252.90.
London's blue chips ascended to heights not seen since June 2008 yesterday, after a generally positive Easter weekend. Employment news from the US last week – that the American economy had created 162,000 jobs in March – resurrected the FTSE's recovery, but inevitably this morning saw a slight retreat in early trading.
That retreat was led, for the most part, by a fall in the price of crude oil, which took index-leading commodities producers down with it. By 10.30am, BHP Billiton was down 46p (-1.97%) to 2,288.50, Kazakhmys was down 29p (-1.78%) to 1,601.00 and Antofagasta was down 18p (-1.65%) to 1,076.00.
No commodity was spared the effect of the fall in energy prices, as Petrofac, Eurasian, Vedanta, Xstrata, Anglo American, Rio Tinto and Cairn Energy were all down more than 1%. Independent oil and gas producer Enquest was the biggest loser in morning trading, falling 4.05%.
At the other end of the index, hedge fund Man Group was up 15.10p (+5.99%) to 267.10 after announcing that the value of its quantitative investment manager, AHL, had grown by 3% in the past week. The news drew several positive words from brokers, which in turn saw the share price boosted this morning.
Others doing well this morning are retailers Kingfisher (+2.59%) and Next (+1.95%), as well as property developer Hammerson (+1.31%) and medical equipment developer Smith & Nephew (+1.30%).
The result of the latest British Chambers of Commerce survey of 5,500 businesses in the UK is that the economy is still growing, and that it looks like the UK has avoided a 'double-dip' recession. However, the report retained a word of caution, stating that the recovery is weak and the economy remains at risk of a serious setback, despite the positive current trend.
After the positivity of the Easter weekend, it will be interesting to see whether this shortened week will sustain the run of new highs.
