Sainsbury, Carphone Warehouse higher as most London retailers decline

London’s equities markets saw gains on Monday, with the FTSE 100 adding 1.85 percent to 5,512.7 while the FTSE 250 gained 1.26 percent to 8,623.

While most retailers saw declines, supermarket chain Sainsbury (LSE: SBRY) and mobile-phone retailer Carphone Warehouse (LSE: CPW) both saw gains.

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) upgraded the grocer from “neutral” to “overweight” and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) resumed their coverage of Carphone Warehouse with a “buy” recommendation.

In Europe, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1.34 percent to 1,178.69 with the CAC-40 adding 1.8 percent to 4,342.59 in Paris while Madrid’s IBEX was 1.84 percent higher to 11,982 and in Frankfurt the Dax gained 1.97 percent to 6,395.75.

Most equities markets in the Asia-Pacific region saw gains as banks were forecast to see higher earnings.

The main exception were Australia’s markets, where the Sydney Ordinaries fell 1.51 percent to 5,091.7 and the S&P/ASX200 dropped 1.57 percent to 5,002.5 on declines in commodities-related shares due to declines in oil and metals prices.

In Tokyo, gains came on investors’ belief that shares are now a bargain in relation their earnings.

The Nikkei 225 added 0.92 percent to 13,360.04 while the Topix index was up 1.15 percent to 1,312.8 and the Mothers market of small and mid-caps gained 0.61 percent to 543.59.

Elsewhere in the region the Kospi index was up 0.11 percent to 1,579.72 while India’s Sensex added 0.54 percent to 13,525.99, the Straits Times Index was 1.44 percent higher to 2,934.12, Taiwan’s Taiex gained 1.56 percent to 7,341 percent, the Hang Seng added 2.28 percent to 21,913.06, and the Shanghai Composite jumped 4.59 percent to 2,792.4.

After the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq turned higher in late afternoon trade, Wall Street equities markets ended lower with the Dow down 0.5 percent to 11,231.96 as the Nasdaq fell 0.09 percent to 2,243.32 and the S&P 500 remained down with a decline of 0.84 percent to 1,252.31.

Crude oil, most metals, and grains prices all took downturns on the session.

After being higher early in the session, the US dollar saw declines later in the day.

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