One of the biggest talking points of April has been the recovery of the price of crude oil which rose 20% to US$48.13, which is now some 60% higher than the lows witnessed in January.

The buoyance seems to be driven by sentiment rather than fundamentals with supply still outstripping demand. The strengthening in the price has seen other commodities follow suit with Gold recording a rise of nearly 5% in the month.

The FTSE 100 is heavily influenced by commodity stocks and this has resulted in the index advancing by 1.08%. Despite the FTSE 100 strengthening through April and the strengthening Pound it has been a bad month for two big retailers in the UK, namely British Home Stores and Austin Reed, who have both entered administration.

Recovery in Europe has gathered some momentum with the growth figure for the first quarter surprising many observers, hitting 0.6% against the consensuses expectations of 0.4%

FTSE 100 – 6,241.89
GBP/USD – 1.4630
GBP/Euro – 1.2782
Brent Crude $48.13
Gold – $1,293.53 (per oz)
 *Figures as at 29 April 2016

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