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London open: Equities gain as investors digest China data
UK equities gained on Tuesday as official data showed Chinese inflation held steady and producer price deflation eased in April.
China’s consumer price index rose 2.3% year-on-year in April, unchanged from the previous month and in line with analysts’ estimates. Food prices, particularly pork price inflation, were the biggest drivers of inflation.
The producer price index fell 3.4% last month compared to a year ago, easing from March’s 4.3% decline and beating forecasts for a 3.7% drop.
“While this will continue to apply deflationary pressure, it is an improvement from March’s 4.3% decline and suggests the negative price pressures from the drop in commodities is beginning to abate,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.
Closer to home, the British Retail Consortium said British shoppers held back from buying new spring and summer clothes during an unusually cold April. Like-for-like retail sales fell 0.9% year-on-year in April, compared to a 0.7% fall in March and analysts’ expectations for a 0.5% increase.
Still to come, UK trade data at 0930 BST, US small business optimism index from NFIB at 1100 BST and US wholesale inventories at 1500 BST.
Meanwhile, oil prices moved higher after wildfires in Canada caused supply disruptions. Brent crude was up 0.57% to $43.88 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate was up 0.20% to $43.53 per barrel at 0902 BST.
In company news, EasyJet flew higher after reporting a smaller first half loss than expected.
Capita surged after saying it had a ‘solid’ start to the year and was confident of growing organic sales 4% in 2016.
Bovis Homes rallied as it revealed in a trading update that it had “no discernible impact” of Brexit worries hitting housing demand and that after an initial slowdown its sales rate has picked back up to where it was a year ago.
However, housebuilders Taylor Wimpy, Berkeley Group and Barratt Developments declined amid fears about Brexit and a slowdown in London’s prime real estate market.
Specialist insurer Hiscox advanced as it increased its gross written premiums by 10% in local currency to £640.5m in its first quarter.
