Monday Morning Markets: FTSE Slips as Trade Tensions and Middle East Risks Weigh

London’s main indices opened Monday on the back foot, with the FTSE 100 down 0.1% and the FTSE 250 broadly flat as investors weighed a fresh escalation in US-Canada trade tensions alongside simmering Middle East risk.

European bourses mirrored the caution, with Frankfurt’s DAX, Paris’s CAC 40 and the Euro Stoxx 50 all down around 0.3%.

Sentiment soured after trade talks between Washington and Ottawa collapsed, with Canada vowing to match the US’s counter-tariffs “dollar for dollar.”

Separately, the US government is set to lay out sanctions against Iran that it has dubbed “economic D-Day”, despite warnings from Tehran that they will be met with an immediate response.

In commodities, spot gold has jumped a further 0.8% to $4,641/oz, extending the recent rally. Oil has so far declined, with Brent crude down 1.4% to $91.41 and WTI falling 1.7% to $85.57.

FTSE 100 movers: Telecoms group Airtel Africa leads the risers, up 1.77%, followed by IG Group (+1.50%) and Diageo (+1.31%), which continues to claw back ground after recent weakness.

On the downside, defence giant BAE Systems has fallen 1.03% and AstraZeneca has dropped 0.95% despite stablemate GSK’s busy morning…

GSK announced the world-first approval of Hibsago (bepirovirsen) in Japan as a functional cure for chronic hepatitis B, plus US FDA priority review acceptance for Jemperli in rectal cancer.

Elsewhere, Polar Capital Technology Trust has slipped 0.94%.

FTSE 250: Shawbrook Group surged 4.8% and ME Group International gained 4.3%, while Kainos Group (-2.24%) and Oxford Biomedica (-1.90%) lagged.

Elsewhere, Tracsis shares have jumped over 7% after confirming FY26 trading in line with expectations and completing its £48m acquisition of Mistral Data from FirstGroup, while small-cap defence firm MS International rallied 6% on a €19.4m NATO naval gun systems contract.