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London open: Stocks nudge up ahead of construction PMI
London stocks nudged a touch higher in early trade on Monday after the top-flight index closed above 7,000 at the end of last week for the first time since November 2017, as investors eyed the latest reading on the UK construction sector.
At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.1% at 7,026.33, while the pound was 0.1% higher against the dollar at 1.3085 and 0.2% firmer versus the euro at 1.1434.
On the data front, the UK construction PMI for January is due at 0930 GMT.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: “Despite the collapse of Carillion, a year ago the UK construction sector has held up fairly well, though it has been slowing in recent months, hitting a three-month low in December. Housing was a little on the weak side, while civil engineering picked up quite sharply. Optimism in this sector has remained buoyant despite the economic gloom and could well see a pick up in the January numbers.”
The top movers and shakers were determined largely by broker notes, with GVC Holdings up on the back of an initiation at ‘buy’ by Jefferies, and Morrisons and Tui boosted by upgrades to ‘neutral’ and ‘buy’ at Citi.
William Hill and Paddy Power also gained after initiations at ‘buy’ by Jefferies while Royal Mail was boosted by an upgrade to ‘buy’ at HSBC.
On the downside, BHP Group and Rio Tinto were the worst performers on the FTSE 100 after downgrades to ‘underweight’ and ‘neutral’, respectively, by JPMorgan. FTSE 250 steelmaker Kaz Minerals was also in the red as it was cut to ‘hold’ at HSBC.
Elsewhere, Indivior advanced as it agreed to sell the Chinese rights to a tablet version of its opioid addiction treatment for $122.5m and also said it had entered into an agreement with Alvogen Pine Brook to temporarily prevent it entering the sublingual film market in the US.
Cybersecurity provider Avast rose after saying it had sold its non-core remote monitoring and management (RMM) product Managed Workplace to Barracuda Networks for an undisclosed sum.
Serco edged up after signing a £560m six year contract to supply health services to the Australian Defence Force through its Bupa Health Services sub-contractor.
Ryanair flew lower as the budget airline said it swung to a €20m loss in the last three months of 2018 from a €105.6m profit in the same period a year ago due to weaker-than-expected fares and higher oil prices. EasyJet also retreated.
Iron ore pellet producer Ferrexpo was the biggest faller on the FTSE 250 after it said 2018 earnings would come in at €500m, down from €551m the previous year and announced that it was investigating payments made to a charitable foundation called Blooming Land in Ukraine.
Wizz Air was also weaker even as it posted a 10% rise in passenger numbers for January and a slight uptick in the load factor.
