[London] FTSE-100 takes lead from decent overnight session in Asia

London’s FTSE-100 has started the week with some healthy gains, taking a lead from a decent overnight session in Asia.

There’s one story breaking that should probably give some cause for concern ahead of next month’s Opec summit in Vienna and that’s news of Iraq refusing to participate in production cuts for crude. Oil prices are off a shade although there could be more to come here as members of the cartel face a classic prisoners’ dilemma – will others now start to back out of the deal before it’s even announced?

This news has however delivered some upside for the airline stocks with both easyJet and IAG climbing again in early trade, whilst a slew of price target upgrades for the miners is helping lift sentiment here, too.

Looking ahead we have a relatively quiet day in terms of economic data with some low level numbers from this side of the Atlantic and although US PMI data is on the cards for October, it seems unlikely that even a modest shortfall here will have any sway on opinion over the timing of a December rate hike from the Federal Reserve.