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London open: Stocks move higher after corporate earnings
London stocks advanced on Tuesday as traders sifted through a batch of corporate earnings releases.
Whitbread topped the FTSE 100 after reporting a 12% increase in full year total revenue to £2.91bn and an 11.9% jump in underlying profit before tax to £546.3m. The owner of Costa and Premier Inn raised the dividend 10% to 90.35p.
BP also rallied despite posting a pre-tax loss of $865m in the first quarter, compared to a $2.2bn profit in the first quarter of 2015, as it kept its dividend unchanged at 10 cents.
British American Tobacco edged higher as it reported a 7.5% increase in revenue at constant currency in the first quarter as cigarette volumes from its subsidiaries rose 3.6% to 158 billion.
Going the other way, Cobham slumped after the aerospace and defence group proposed a £500m rights issue in the second quarter of the year as it reported a big drop in first-quarter trading profit.
In economic data, the British Banker’s Association said gross mortgage borrowing jumped 64% in March to £17.1bn, the highest level since April 2008. The rise was driven by a sharp increase in the purchase of buy-to-let and second homes, ahead of higher stamp duty on 1 April.
US data makes up most of Tuesday’s calendar, however, with the release of durable goods orders at 1330 BST, S&P/Case Shiller home price index at 1400 BST, Markit’s services PMI at 1445 BST and the consumer confidence index at 1500 BST.
Meanwhile, oil prices rebounded from declines in the previous session as the US dollar weakened. Brent crude rose 0.69% to $44.78 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate climbed 0.62% to $42.91 per barrel at 0900 BST.
