British stocks managed a small advance on Monday even as a fresh escalation in the Middle East sent crude oil sharply higher and prompted renewed risk aversion across markets.
The FTSE 100 finished the session up 0.07%. By comparison, Germany’s DAX eased 0.16% and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.20%. The pound moved lower against the dollar, with GBP/USD down 0.16% at 1.3386 as of 03:25 ET (07:25 GMT).
Market moves followed a new round of US military action against Iranian targets over the weekend. US Central Command said the strikes were intended to further degrade Tehran’s ability to target commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The operations came after several nights of attacks that US forces said targeted numerous Iranian military positions.
“It’s open,” US President Donald Trump said on NBC’s Meet the Press, referring to the Strait of Hormuz, adding: “We bombed the hell out of them last night.”
That account differs from remarks attributed to Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which said passage remained closed pending a security review and that transit permits would only be issued once “stability and calm are restored.”
The US actions follow a sequence of strikes across the prior nights. CENTCOM said US forces had struck roughly 140 Iranian military targets in the third round of strikes on Saturday, and more than 300 targets across three nights this week in the wake of an incident in which Iranian forces were accused of striking the Cyprus-flagged container ship M/V GFS Galaxy, leaving a crew member missing.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X on July 11 that “Iran has so far kept its word, unlike the so-called U.S. Treasury Secretary who is violating Para 9 of the MoU,” adding that “that violation follows other violations and missteps by the United States” and that “there can only be mutual compliance.”
CBS News separately reported, citing an unnamed US official, that Iranian officials had privately told Trump advisers the vessel attacks were a mistake by a rogue faction seeking to undermine talks. The official was quoted as saying Tehran “came back to the table and said, ’We screwed up... let’s keep talking.’”
Negotiations continued in Oman over the weekend with Vice President JD Vance, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff participating in discussions.
Commodity markets reacted swiftly. Brent crude climbed 3.8% to $78.86 a barrel, while US WTI rose 3.7% to $74.06 - moves that the market attributed to fears of Gulf supply disruption. Precious metals, by contrast, eased: gold futures fell 1.2% to $4,065.02 an ounce and spot gold dropped 1.6% to $4,056.82, reflecting a shift away from bullion amid heightened risk premiums for oil.
UK corporate round-up
Several UK-listed companies updated the market with results or guidance that offset some of the broader geopolitical drag.
- PageGroup reported second-quarter gross profit ahead of expectations, with stronger performance in the Americas and Asia offsetting ongoing weakness in Europe and the UK.
- ME Group reaffirmed full-year profit guidance and said trading had recovered after an April slowdown that it attributed to weaker consumer spending in France.
- Plus500 also reaffirmed full-year guidance, reporting its strongest first-half revenue in three years, helped by higher trading activity and expansion into the US market.
These corporate updates helped cushion UK equities as energy-related blue-chip gains partially offset risk-off flows elsewhere in the market.
Overall, Monday’s session illustrated a market balancing act: energy sector strength lifted the headline UK index even as geopolitical uncertainty weighed on broader European benchmarks and shifted currency and commodity positions.