a worker shelters from the rain under a union flag umbrella as he passes the london stock exchange in london britain october 1 2008 reuterstoby melville aug 23 reuters  londons ftse 100 gained on monday after recording its worst week since february as heavyweight energy and mining stocks jumped while a drop in business activity raised worries of a slower economic growth the bluechip ftse 100 ftse rose 03 with bp bpl royal dutch shell rdsal glencore glenl and anglo american aall being among the top boosts the domestically focussed midcap index ftmc was up 01 with travel and leisure stocks ftnmx405010 leading the gains strong commodity prices and dovish central bank policies have helped the ftse 100 gain 102 so far this year with the index set to end its first month above the 7200mark since january this year however surging covid19 cases and concerns of a slowing economy have also weighed on markets britains postlockdown economic bounceback slowed sharply in august as companies struggled with unprecedented shortages of staff and materials but strong inflation pressures cooled a bit a survey showed read more services have seen a decent rebound in the last few months but certain sectors are still struggling as a result of consumer behaviour which is much more cautious than it would have been prepandemic leading to some softness said michael hewson chief market analyst at cmc markets a flash reading of the pmi index showed uk business activity slowed in august although it stays above the 50mark indicating that uk business activity is continuing to expand just at a slower pace from the previous month ​ among stocks british supermarket group sainsburys sbryl jumped 112 to the top of the ftse 100 on reports that private equity companies were circling with a view to possibly launching bids of more than 7 billion pounds 953 billion read more british airline easyjet ezjl gained 16 after it named former rbs chief executive officer stephen hester as its chair designate read more reporting by shashank nayar in bengaluru editing by subhranshu sahu and uttareshv