Latest market news

LONDON MARKET OPEN: Stocks up as Europe reacts to New York rally

Stocks in London were in the green on Tuesday morning, tracking a rise in global equities following weaker US jobs data and a UK public holiday on Monday.

The FTSE 100 index opened up 69.25 points, 0.8%, at 8,282.95. The FTSE 250 was up 187.86 points, 0.9%, at 20,352.21, and the AIM All-Share was up 4.81 points, 0.6%, at 776.37.

The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.9% at 826.93, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.9% at 17,633.61, and the Cboe Small Companies was down 0.6% at 15,692.84.

In European equities on Tuesday, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.5%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was up 0.4%.

Annual growth in UK house prices quickened last month, while they returned to slight growth on a monthly basis, numbers from mortgage lender Halifax showed Tuesday.

UK house price growth quickened to 1.1% year-on-year in April, Halifax said, from a 0.4% rise in March. Prices ticked up 0.1% in April from March, having fallen 0.9% in March from February.

The monthly rise in April was expected to be 0.2%, according to FXStreet-cited consensus. The average UK house price in April was £288,949, up from £288,781 in March.

In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.5%, the S&P 500 up 1.0% and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.2%.

‘The week started on a positive note for the global equities which continue to surf on the optimism that the Federal Reserve’s next move won’t be a rate hike, which I think is overdone and that next week’s US inflation data could be a rude awakening,’ said Swissquote Bank analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya.

‘But one thing is sure, the earnings season is going well and analysts project that the S&P500 earnings will grow 17% this year.’

Sterling was quoted at $1.2538 early Tuesday, lower than $1.2549 at the London equities close on Friday. The euro traded at $1.0767 early Tuesday, lower than $1.0769 late Friday. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted higher at JP¥154.13 from JP¥152.89.

In the FTSE 100, BP was one of the few losers, falling 0.9%.

The oil major said replacement cost profit was down to $1.61 billion from $8.67 billion a year earlier, but up from $1.53 billion from the fourth quarter. Total first quarter revenue was down to $48.88 billion from $56.18 billion a year earlier, and down from $52.14 billion in the fourth quarter, while first quarter upstream production was 2.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, up 2.1% from a year earlier.

BP has started a new $1.75 billion share buyback programme for the first quarter as planned, while it says a total of $3.5 billion is still planned in share buybacks for the first half of 2024.

It declared a quarterly dividend of 7.27 cents per share, unchanged from the fourth quarter and up from 6.61 cents a year earlier.

Looking ahead, it expects upstream production to be slightly lower in the second quarter from the first quarter, while across 2024, it expects upstream production to be slightly up from 2023 on both a reported and underlying basis.

In the FTSE 250, SDCL Energy Efficiency rose 3.8%, after it agreed to sell UU Solar to UK Power for £90.8 million.

The investor in assets in the energy efficiency sector said the agreed price represents a 4.5% premium to UU Solar’s September 30 valuation. SDCL Energy Efficiency said the sale proceeds will be used to reduce short term borrowings under its revolving credit facility.

Elsewhere in London, Macfarlane lost 8.4%.

In a trading statement ahead of its annual general meeting, the packaging company said the start of 2024 had been challenging, with first quarter sales and profit lower than a year earlier.

Sales were down 9.5%, which Macfarlane blamed on continued weak customer demand and price deflation, with the profit hit being partially offset by ‘strong gross margins and the benefit of acquisitions’.

Despite this, it said its expectations for the full-year were unchanged. Macfarlane expects an improved trading performance in the second half of 2024 through the ‘conversion of a strong new business pipeline combined with some sales recovery from existing customers, good management of gross margins, control of costs and further benefits from M&A activity’.

In Asia on Tuesday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo ended 1.6% higher. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended up 0.2%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was 0.7% lower in late dealings. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed up 1.4%.

Brent oil was trading at $83.22 a barrel early Tuesday, higher than $82.91 late Friday.

Israel carried out strikes on the Gazan city of Rafah overnight as it sought to put ‘pressure’ on Hamas ahead of talks in Egypt on Tuesday aimed at sealing a truce proposal endorsed by the militants.

After having vowed for weeks to push into the southern border town, Israel called on Monday for Palestinians in eastern Rafah to leave for an ‘expanded humanitarian area’ ahead of a ground incursion.

After talks earlier in the day failed to produce an agreement, Hamas said Monday evening that it had informed mediators Egypt and Qatar of its ‘approval of their proposal regarding a ceasefire’ in the seven-month-old war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the proposal ‘is far from Israel’s essential demands’, but the government would send negotiators for talks ‘to exhaust the potential for arriving at an agreement’

Gold was quoted at $2,320.62 an ounce early Tuesday, higher than $2,301.11 on Friday.

Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.