By Devik Jain and Sruthi Shankar
(Reuters) - UK shares rose on Tuesday as a recovery in oil prices and a surprise expansion in Chinese factory activity revived confidence in equity markets amid a deep selloff this month that set the FTSE 100 on course for its worst quarter since 1987.
The index (FTSE) rose 2.1%, with turnaround specialist Melrose Industries (L:MRON) surging 19% after it secured a debt covenant waiver and said it was cutting expenses in an effort to ride out the coronavirus crisis.
Cigarette maker Imperial Brands (L:IMB) rose 11% as it secured a new 3.5 billion euro ($3.85 billion) credit line and said it was not seeing any major hit to business from the outbreak.
The latest data from China showed factory activity unexpectedly expanded in March from a collapse the month before, but analysts caution that a durable near-term recovery is far from assured.
"What we're really looking at the China data is to see if it's an indicator of how quickly Europe and U.S. can get back to work potentially after their lockdown," said UBS strategist Kiran Ganesh.
"If the lockdown ends in May, which is what we're broadly pricing in, then we may see a similar path of what we've seen in China."
The FTSE 100 has recovered about 15% since hitting a near nine-year low on March 16, but remains nearly 25% below its January record high as entire countries enforced stay-at-home orders due to the outbreak, halting business activity.
An index of midcap stocks (FTMC) is on course to record its worst quarterly decline ever, although sentiment has stabilised towards the end of March after unprecedented stimulus by policymakers to cushion the pandemic's economic blow.
Oil prices steadied following a near collapse on Monday, as U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to discuss stabilising energy markets, boosting shares in Royal Dutch Shell Plc (L:RDSa) and BP Plc (L:BP). [O/R]
Travel stocks have also been hit hard in the past month in the face of an evaporation in passengers, with the wider travel and leisure index (FTNMX5750) losing 45% in the first quarter.
Supermarket chains Tesco (L:TSCO) and Sainsbury 's (L:SBRY) have held up as industry data showed British consumers spent an additional 1.9 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) on groceries in the four weeks to March 21.
Luxury carmaker Aston Martin (L:AML) fell 8.7% after saying it is furloughing some employees as it handles the fallout from the outbreak, which has closed its car factories.