Markets in the green amid tentative hopes of Ukraine de-escalation

Promises of a partial Russian pullback from the areas surrounding Ukraine put a spring in the step of markets, which partly bounced back from a bruising beating on Monday.

Although it is not yet clear if the promises are being borne out by troop movements on the ground, the news helped the FTSE 100 claw back lost ground.

It ended the day up 77.33 points to 7,608.92, a rise of just over 1%.

It came a day after a dark session of trading for the FTSE, which was battered by fears over the situation in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he does not want war, but has been sending troops to the country’s border with Ukraine for weeks.

Experts say that it will take several days to verify if the Kremlin is keeping its promise to draw back some of its forces from the area.

Traders seem to have taken at least some solace from the statement, though this could yet prove to be misplaced.

“While this is an encouraging development, talk tends to be cheap and so far, there has been little evidence of that happening on the ground, which perhaps helps explain why today’s rebound has been cautious, relative to recent losses,” said Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets.

“Today’s rebound has nonetheless been more pronounced in Europe with (Germany’s) Dax and (France’s) Cac 40 outperforming, however we remain below the levels we closed at on Friday, although the Dax is coming close.”

The Frankfurt index ended the day up 2%, while its counterpart in Paris gained 1.9%.

“The rebound in the FTSE 100 has been much less pronounced, largely due to sharp falls in oil prices, as well as precious metals prices, which is dragging on the likes of BP, Shell, Anglo American and Rio Tinto,” Mr Hewson said.

In the US the Dow Jones had added 1.3% and the S&P 500 was up 1.5% by the time markets closed in Europe.

On currency markets sterling was in positive territory, gaining 0.1% to buy 1.3535 dollars and also up 0.02% against the euro at 1.1911.

In company news, mining giant BHP said that it would hand back more than £5 billion to investors in a record-breaking dividend.

But shares slipped 1.6% on the news.

Its Anglo-Swiss rival Glencore also revealed plans to return £2.9 billion to shareholders after an 84% jump in earnings.

Its shares closed up 1%.

Both companies have benefited from rising commodity prices in the last year, as reopening economies competed with each other to buy up vital materials.

Elsewhere, John Menzies said again that a takeover bid from a Kuwaiti rival worth £469 million is “opportunistic” and repeated its rejection of the approach.

Its shares rose by 2.6% on Tuesday.

Share in Plus500 were flat after the company unveiled a plan to return more than £41 million to investors.

The business revealed a drop in pre-tax profit during 2021, but it is still well ahead of its pre-pandemic levels.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were AstraZeneca, up 484p to 8,865p, Melrose Industries, up 8.55p to 160.55p, Ocado, up 62.5p to 1,363p, Evraz, up 15.1p to 330.6p, and IAG, up 7.6p to 336.6p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Fresnillo, down 23p to 642.8p, Evraz, down 102p to 3,516p, Rio Tinto, down 76p to 5,646p, Next, down 84p to 7,074p, and Shell, down 22p to 1,984p.