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London open: Stocks rise amid US tax reform hopes
London stocks rose in early trade on Monday, with sentiment underpinned by US tax reform hopes.
At 0840 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.6% to 7,531.54, while the pound was down 0.1% against the euro at 1.1332 and up 0.3% versus the dollar at 1.3355.
Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: “It might be a bit late, but there were signs of a – tax bill-inspired – Santa rally this morning, with the European indices opening sharply higher.
“With Senate and House Republicans coming to an agreement over the weekend, and the prospect of the tax bill being passed later this week – giving Trump his first major victory since taking office in January ?” the markets were in party mode this Monday.”
On the data front, the CBI industrial trends survey is at 1100 GMT.
In corporate news, IG Group slumped as it called new leverage limits being proposed by the European financial regulator “disproportionate” and said the broader set of proposals would have an impact of between 5% and 10% on historic revenues. The European Securities and Markets Authority said it is considering measures to prohibit the marketing, distribution or sale to retail clients of binary options, together with restricting the marketing, distribution or sale to retail clients of CFDs, including rolling spot forex. Shares in CMC Markets and Plus500 also tumbled.
Babcock rose as its subsidiary Cavendish Nuclear, the UK’s largest nuclear services business, was awarded a 10-year contract to supply Sellafield with specialist handling and containment systems to process nuclear material.
AstraZeneca slipped as it announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has accepted a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for the use of Tagrisso (osimertinib) in the first line treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer whose tumours have epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations.
Supergroup advanced after saying its sportswear label has been appointed as the official clothing supplier to the UK delegation for the 2018 Invictus Games in Sydney, Australia. The retailer is also expecting to complete the buy-out of the operations of its Dutch wholesale agent, Portare, in January for an estimated payment of £2m.
3i Infrastructure gained after agreeing to sell its stake in Anglian Water Group, the parent company of Anglian Water, to a consortium of Dalmore Capital and GLIL Infrastructure.
Hunting gushed higher as it said that, as it anticipated in its trading update on 24 October, revenue for the full year was expected to be around the $700m mark, with results strongly weighted to the second half of the year, while EasyJet flew higher after confirming the acquisition of Air Berlin assets.
Great Portland Estates lost some ground as it sold its high-profile Southbank tower 240 Blackfriars Road to Emirati investors.
