London close: Stocks rise for second day on Iran ceasefire hopes

25th Mar 2026 16:35

(Sharecast News) - UK stocks advanced again on Wednesday after hitting its lowest levels of the year earlier in the week, as investors hunted for bargains amid rising hopes of a ceasefire in the Middle East.

The FTSE 100 rose 141.68 points or 1.42% to 10,106.84, its second day in positive territory after settling at 9,894.15 on Monday - a level not seen since 29 December.

US president Donald Trump overnight presented a 15-point "peace plan" and claimed Iran wanted to "make a deal so badly". However, Tehran has dismissed this as fake news, adding that the US was "negotiating with itself".

Israel's Channel 12 was the first to report the plan, saying that a one-month ceasefire would be announced according to a mechanism being worked on by US Middle East envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Despite US strikes on the Gulf state continuing unabated and another 1,000 American troops being deployed to the region talks of a potential ceasefire - even if they are not being reciprocated - were enough to bring oil prices down following a near-5% jump on Tuesday. Brent crude was down 3.7% at $96.53 a barrel by the close in London, while WTI crude was 2.6% lower at $89.92 a barrel.

"Investors are pinning their hopes on a 15-point ceasefire deal unveiled by the US despite the proposals apparently being rebuffed by Iran," said AJ Bell's head of markets Dan Coatsworth.

"For now, equity investors seem minded to look for the positives and hope that some kind of off-ramp can be found to allow the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened and end the substantial disruption to energy supplies," Coatsworth said, but added that "uncertainty is likely to result in further volatility" until concrete peace talks take place.

On home shores, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that inflation was unchanged in February, in line with forecasts. The consumer prices index in the 12 months to February showed no change on January, at 3%.

Miners, housebuilders provide a boost

Mining stocks rose as commodity prices climbed, with gold futures up 3.5%, silver up 4.8% and copper up 1.8%. Anglo American, Endeavour and Fresnillo were all putting in decent gains.

Also higher were housebuilders Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Redrow as the sector attempts to rebound following a sell-off over March. Interest-rate cut projections have been pushed back in recent weeks amid speculation that inflationary pressures owing to the energy crisis could prompt the Bank of England to stand pat for an extended period of time.

United Utilities gained after saying full-year underlying earnings per share were expected to be in line with previous guidance of roughly 100p, while chemicals group Croda jumped after an upgrade to 'overweight' from 'equalweight' at Morgan Stanley.

Diageo advanced after saying it had sold the Royal Challengers Bengaluru cricket team for £1.3bn to a consortium including Blackstone and US sports investor David Blitzer.

On the FTSE 250, RS Group tumbled after saying it expects a 0.6% fall in like-for-like annual revenue due to "difficult markets", while Eurowag shot up after forecasting further growth as annual earnings motored ahead.