Hot Features
Premium
Level up your trading with our powerful tools and real-time insights all in one place.
London open: Stocks gain as Informa, Wetherspoons rally
London stocks rose in early trade on Wednesday, helped along by solid performances from the likes of Informa and Wetherspoons, as investors eyed this week’s Bank of England policy announcement.
At 0835 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.4% at 8,348.46.
Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The FTSE 100 was up over 0.4% just short of 8,350 in early trading. Over the last month it has risen 5% strongly outperforming the US market. The S&P 500 is down 0.3% over the same period.
“This follows a broadly flat session in the United States, as markets clung onto gains made in the latest winning streak. That’s after a drag from the 9.5% drop in the value of Disney shares, the worst performance for over a year.”
Looking ahead to the rest of the week, investors will be eyeing the BoE’s latest policy announcement on Thursday.
Danske Bank said it expects the Bank to keep rates unchanged at 5.25%, in line with consensus and current market pricing.
“Overall, we expect the MPC to cautiously soften its communication priming markets for a rate cut, delivering the first cut of 25bp in June,” it said.
In equity markets, Informa jumped to the top of the FTSE 100 as the B2B events, publishing and data group lifted its share buyback programme by 50% and announced a strong operating performance for the first four months of the year, with revenues, profits and cash flow expected to reach the upper end of guidance.
The company said it has raised its 2024 share repurchase programme by a further £160m to £500m.
AstraZeneca was in the black after announcing the withdrawal of its Covid-19 vaccine worldwide just months after admitting it can cause a rare and potentially dangerous side effect.
OSB Group surged as it said its financial and operational performance in the first quarter was stable and underlying net interest margin was on track to meet full-year guidance.
Pub group JD Wetherspoon rallied after saying it expects full-year profits to be towards the top of market expectations as it reported a 5.2% jump in like-for-like third-quarter sales, boosted by sales of traditional ales and Guinness.
British Gas owner Centrica was trading higher after an upgrade to ‘buy’ at UBS.
On the downside, Direct Line fell even as the insurer reported a large rise in first-quarter written premiums as it hammered consumers with price hikes.
Technical instruments maker Renishaw slumped as it lowered full-year guidance amid what it described as “mixed” markets as earnings fell over the first nine months of its financial year.
In a trading update, the company said it now expects revenue to be in the range of £680m to £700m and adjusted profit before tax of £122m to £135m. This compares with £675m to £715m and £122m to £147m forecast at Renishaw’s interim results in February.
Top 10 FTSE 100 Risers
| Sponsored by Plus500 |
|
| # | Name | Change Pct | Change | Cur Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
International Consolidated Airlines Group S.a. | +3.02% | +5.35 | 182.75 |
| 2 |  |
Informa Plc | +2.29% | +19.00 | 850.40 |
| 3 |  |
Melrose Industries Plc | +2.17% | +12.80 | 604.00 |
| 4 |  |
Diageo Plc | +2.00% | +55.00 | 2,810.50 |
| 5 |  |
Rightmove Plc | +1.95% | +10.80 | 564.60 |
| 6 |  |
Smurfit Kappa Group Plc | +1.92% | +72.00 | 3,818.00 |
| 7 |  |
Rolls-royce Holdings Plc | +1.86% | +7.80 | 426.20 |
| 8 |  |
Halma Plc | +1.80% | +41.00 | 2,325.00 |
| 9 |  |
Astrazeneca Plc | +1.70% | +206.00 | 12,324.00 |
| 10 |  |
St. James’s Place Plc | +1.49% | +6.80 | 464.60 |
Top 10 FTSE 100 Fallers
| Sponsored by Plus500 |
|
| # | Name | Change Pct | Change | Cur Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Antofagasta Plc | -2.59% | -57.00 | 2,141.00 |
| 2 |  |
Direct Line Insurance Group Plc | -2.49% | -4.70 | 184.00 |
| 3 |  |
Bp Plc | -2.12% | -10.70 | 493.00 |
| 4 |  |
Glencore Plc | -1.86% | -8.70 | 459.25 |
| 5 |  |
Carnival Plc | -1.42% | -15.00 | 1,039.50 |
| 6 |  |
Rio Tinto Plc | -1.22% | -68.00 | 5,523.00 |
| 7 |  |
Flutter Entertainment Plc | -1.20% | -195.00 | 16,005.00 |
| 8 |  |
Bt Group Plc | -1.09% | -1.15 | 104.30 |
| 9 |  |
Phoenix Group Holdings Plc | -1.06% | -5.50 | 512.00 |
| 10 |  |
Fresnillo Plc | -1.06% | -6.00 | 561.50 |
US close: Dow Jones delivers fifth-straight daily gain
Major indices turned in a mixed performance on Tuesday as the blue-chip Dow Jones registered its fifth positive session in a row.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.08% at 38,884.26 and the S&P 500 saw out the session 0.13% firmer at 5,187.70, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.10% to 16,332.56.
The Dow closed 31.99 points higher on Tuesday, extending gains recorded in the previous session as sentiment continued to get a boost from last week’s nonfarm payrolls data thanks to the combination of higher unemployment and weaker-than-expected payrolls and average earnings figures.
There was little in the way of market-moving news on Tuesday, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury dropping roughly three basis points to 4.45% being one of the day’s main events.
In the corporate space, media giant Disney posted better-than-expected quarterly numbers, revealing that its streaming business had nearly broken even during Q1, while Palantir shares were down double-digits on weaker-than-expected guidance, and Peloton stock rallied on news that private equity firms were mulling a buyout of the fitness company.
On the macro front, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis head Neel Kashkari said that he believes interest rates will need to be maintained at current levels for an “extended period” and fell short of ruling out further rate hikes if inflation stalls near the 3% mark. “I think it’s much more likely we would just sit here for longer than we expect or the public expects right now until we see what effect our monetary policy is having,” Kashkari said.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: E-gates, Mike Ashley, Brexit
More than 800,000 people in Europe and the US appear to have been duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a vast network of fake online designer shops apparently operated from China. An international investigation by the Guardian, Die Zeit and Le Monde gives a rare inside look at the mechanics of what the UK’s Chartered Trading Standards Institute has described as one of the largest scams of its kind, with 76,000 fake websites created. – Guardian
Passengers experienced delays at a number of UK airports on Tuesday due to a nationwide technical outage affecting UK Border Force e-gates. Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol airports all confirmed problems with passengers being processed through the border on Tuesday evening. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Home Office announced that e-gates came back online shortly after midnight. At the same time, Heathrow airport’s Twitter/X account said: “Following the Border Force national outage yesterday evening, all systems are now running as usual. Passengers can expect to travel through Heathrow smoothly. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.” – Guardian
Banks have shut the accounts of hundreds of defence companies amid fears that lenders’ internal ethics policies are putting national security at risk. Santander and Lloyds closed 300 accounts belonging to “public administration and defence” companies last year alone, according to correspondence with MPs on the Treasury Select Committee. Other major lenders did not provide a breakdown, suggesting the actual figure could be far higher. – Telegraph
Mike Ashley has stepped up his jet-set lifestyle since handing over the day-to-day running of Frasers Group to his son-in-law. The retail tycoon has increased his annual spend on Frasers’ private jet and helicopter to £2.6 million, after saying he felt “very confident passing the baton” to Michael Murray as the group’s new chief executive. – The Times
Brexit is likely to have had a “sizeable negative effect on the UK economy”, one of the International Monetary Fund’s most senior officials has said, citing the country’s exit from the European Union as an example of the dangers of trade fragmentation. Gita Gopinath, deputy managing director of the Washington-based fund, said Britain’s exit from the EU’s single market and customs union in 2020 showed the harmful consequences of breaking up
