Market Analysis

On Friday, Britain's FTSE 100 kicked off near all-time highs, driven by a surge in Anglo-American shares following reports from Reuters suggesting Glencore's interest in acquiring the mining giant. 

Meanwhile, Diageo saw a boost after appointing a new chief financial officer. The FTSE 100 edged up by 0.3% early on, poised for its second consecutive week of gains. 

Anglo American shares soared by 3.2% amid speculation of a potential bid from Glencore, potentially igniting a bidding war. Glencore, however, saw a slight decline of 1.8%. The news also lifted the industrial metal miners index by 0.3%. Diageo's stock climbed 1.1% as the company announced Nik Jhangiani as its new CFO. Contributing to the positive sentiment, Apple's announcement of a $110 billion share buyback program buoyed market sentiment, echoing gains seen in Asian stocks. 

The mid-cap FTSE 250 remained relatively unchanged. Later in the day, investors will closely watch domestic PMI data for April, Eurozone unemployment figures for March, and U.S. nonfarm payrolls data for April.

Paraphrasing text from "Reuters" all rights reserved by the original author.