Builders and gold miners drag as Trump Iran deal awaited

• FTSE up 41 points at 10,477

• Oil and gas prices remain elevated 

• Pres Trump set a 1am GMT deadline for Iran deal

Stock markets are fairly “steady”, says market analyst Dan Coatsworth at AJ Bell, who sees investors a “largely non-committal as they await the apparent cliff-edge deadline imposed by the Trump administration”.

President Trump’s threats of widespread strikes on Iran’s civilian infrastructure if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened by 1am GMT “if taken at face value, create the conditions for a binary set of outcomes”, he says.

“Either there is a climbdown on the part of Washington or Tehran, which could prompt a major rally in equities and easing of energy prices, or a major escalation with all the implications that might have for financial markets.

“An alternative scenario is that the deadline is extended, and the markets face another uneasy period of trying to gauge the latest mood music in the US and Iran.”

With oil prices hovering around the $110 per barrel mark, Coatsworth says it is “striking how far energy markets are from pricing in a dampening down in Middle East tensions”, while gold is retreating on continued strength in the dollar and the potential for interest rate hikes, factors which he says outweigh any safe-haven attractions during the current crisis.

UK new car registrations rose 10.1% year-on-year in March, down from growth of 17.6% in February.

This is part of the new data shared by the industry’s lobbying body, the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT), which shows that total registrations, which also includes business and fleet sales, rose 6.6% in March, up from a 7.2% gain in February.

It was the best ever month for battery electric vehicle sales, with BEV volumes up 24.2% to a record high of 86,120 registrations.

Total BEV and hybrid sales hit 196,059. This was a market share of 22.6%, still well below the government’s mandated target for the year of 33%.

Despite rising EV volumes, the SMMT said conditions have “diverged sharply from those assumed when the mandate was set”, with battery costs up over 30% more than expected and industrial energy prices around 80% above 2021 levels, with some public charging costing over 140% more than it did five years ago.

SMMT boss Mike Hawes says an “urgent review of the transition is required to secure a sustainable market, economic growth and the UK’s net zero ambitions”.

Now the FTSE has dropped into the red, led by precious metals miners, travel groups and housebuilders.

Miners Endeavour and Fresnillo are down 2.2% and 1.8%.

InterContinental Hotels is down 2%, while aerospace parts suppliers Melrose and Rolls-Royce are down, along with defence contractor Babcock, between 1.1% and 1.3%.

Housebuilders Persimmon and Barratt Redrow, utilities SSE and UU, bookmaker Entain and Compass are also among the top fallers.

The FTSE 100 has risen 14 points to 10,450 in opening trades.

Oil behemoths Shell and BP are doing most of the heavy lifting, up 1.2% and 1.4%.

Top of the leaderboard is Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, a major shareholder in SpaceX, as more details are shared on Elon Musk’s rocket company and its targeted $1.75 trillion IPO.

It’s a very quiet morning in terms of company news, particularly for FTSE 350 companies.

Extra attention for Hunting then, as it flags winning almost $68 million of orders for a new offshore development in Guyana, most of which are for its titanium stress joint (TSJ) product line, which is used on floating, production and storage vessels.

Elsewhere, WH Smith has confirmed that Leo Quinn assumes his role of executive chair today, with Andrew Harrison stepping down from the board and resuming his role as UK divisional CEO.

Looking further afield, Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square said it is planning to buy Universal Music Group in a cash and shares deal, where shareholders will get €9.4 billion in cash and 0.77 shares of new stock for each share they hold.

A sliver of good news comes from the CBI this morning, where its long-running survey finds that financial services activity rebounded sharply in the first quarter, with business volumes rising at the fastest pace since 1996.

Sentiment also turned positive for the first time since mid-2024, while profitability recovered after a prolonged decline, pointing to a stronger start to the year.

However, pressure on margins intensified, with average spreads narrowing at the fastest rate since late 2024.

Firms expect growth to continue next quarter, though uncertainty around demand has understandably surged in the past month due to the war in the Middle East, with concerns at their highest level since 2012.

“The sector still appears to be digesting the implications of conflict in the Middle East. This is not surprising given that financial services firms are at the epicentre of volatile market moves, and that the economic impact of the conflict is still crystallising,” says CBI deputy chief economist, Alpesh Paleja.

The CBI wants the government to “double down” on delivering its financial services growth and competitiveness strategy, with priorities including continuing work to streamline unnecessary regulation, accelerating delivery of the Mansion House reforms, and deploying capital through finance programmes such as the British Business Bank.

The FTSE 100 has been predicted to start its holiday-shortened week slightly in the red, as markets eye Donald Trump’s deadline tonight for Iran to agree a deal.

The US President has threatened that if an agreement is not made before 8pm Eastern Time tonight (1am London), the country’s bridges and power plants will be destroyed.

London’s blue-chip share index is down 14 points on the futures market, having rebounded roughly 464 points last week to 10,436.29.

US stock markets were open on Monday while Europe took an extra day off for Easter, with the tech-powered Nasdaq adding 0.5%, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones edging up 0.4%.

Asian stocks are mixed this morning, with the Hang Seng down 0.7% in Hong Kong, but Japan’s Nikkei and Korea’s Kospi up 0.2% and 0.6%.

Brent crude oil has climbed back above $111 a barrel this morning, after trading as low $107 yesterday.

“Sentiment has turned more cautious this morning as investors grapple with President Trump’s new deadline,” says macro analyst Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank.

“In terms of Trump’s latest ultimatum to Iran, the US President shared the 8pm ET Tuesday deadline on social media on Sunday and then referred to it several times yesterday as he demanded that Iran strikes a deal that ‘that’s acceptable to me’, while threatening intensified attacks against Iran that would destroy ‘every bridge’ and take ‘every power plant’ out of business.

“Notably, Trump said that a deal should include ‘free traffic of oil’, calling reopening the Strait of Hormuz ‘a very big priority’.

“So a seeming shift from previous suggestions that reopening the straits was not a core objective for the US.”