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London open: Stocks nudge lower but Aviva jumps on buyback report
London stocks nudged lower in early trade on Monday, taking their cue from a downbeat session in Asia amid a lack of market-moving news.
At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 0.1% to 7,404.08 while the pound was off 0.1% against the euro at 1.1168 and flat versus the dollar at 1.3336.
Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: “Neither currency nor index has got a lot to work with this Monday, the week properly starting with the results of the bank stress tests tomorrow. The day’s calendar is a barren wasteland, the only highlight being an afternoon speech from Andy Haldane – and even that is undermined by the fact that the Bank of England chief economist is set to speak about the institutions education and communication strategy.”
Still, there was some good news in the form of progress on the political front in Germany, as Angela Merkel’s conservative party agreed over the weekend to pursue a “grand coalition” with the Social Democrats to break political deadlock.
In corporate news, Ultra Electronics slipped despite saying has won a brace of contracts, one in the UK and one with Sweden’s Saab, two weeks after the defence and security supplier issued a profit warning due to a slowdown in UK defence spending.
Education publisher Pearson was under the cosh after agreeing to sell its Wall Street English business to a consortium of funds led by Baring Private Equity Asia and CITIC Capital for around $300m.
On the upside, Aviva was a high riser following a Sunday Times report suggesting the company is planning a £1bn buyback.
AstraZeneca edged up after submitting a supplemental new drug application to Japan’s drug regulator for its Tagrisso to be given as a first-line treatment of patients with certain types of non-small cell lung cancer.
LondonMetric ticked higher as it exchanged on the sale of an Odeon cinema in Derby and a retail asset in Guisborough for £18.6m.
In broker note action, EasyJet flew higher after an upgrade to neutral at Exane BNP Paribas, but Micro Focus fell on the back of a downgrade to ‘hold’ at Deutsche Bank. SIG and Marshalls were hit by initiations at ‘underweight’ from Barclays.
