London open: Stocks bounce back despite oil price slide
UK stocks staged an early bounce, following the losses sustained over the previous sessions, as traders waited on potentially market-moving data on Eurozone inflation and kept a wary eye trained on the continuing slide in oil prices.
Amazon.Com Inc.
$178.33
07:05 23/04/24
Dow Jones I.A.
38,460.39
04:30 15/10/20
Food & Drug Retailers
3,784.33
16:59 23/04/24
FTSE 100
8,044.81
16:49 23/04/24
FTSE 350
4,424.29
16:59 23/04/24
FTSE All-Share
4,378.75
16:55 23/04/24
Nasdaq 100
17,444.03
07:05 23/04/24
Sainsbury (J)
269.00p
16:40 23/04/24
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
$58.59
07:05 23/04/24
As of 09:12 the Footsie was higher by 37 points to 6,403.89, buoyed by better-than-expected quarterly sales figures from grocer Sainsbury. Those numbers set of a flurry of buying across the sector.
A preliminary reading on the Eurozone’s consumer price index, due out at 10:00, was expected to show the single currency area on the brink of deflation, at a 0.0% year-on-year rate of change.
The index suffered a near 0.8% fall in the previous session, following an already weak start to the week and the New Year over previous sessions.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.74% to 17,372 while the Nasdaq-100 dropped 1.2% to 4,110.83 and the S&P 500 retreated 0.89% to 2,002.61.
As of 09:12 front month Brent crude futures were losing another 2.3% to reach $49.94 per barrel, breaking below $50 for the first time in five and a half years, while West Texas intermediate crude futures closed 4.272% lower at $47.99 a barrel.
“The oil price is the only thing that investors can focus on at the moment and with the drop in both WTI and Brent crude oil continuing it currently seems that there is no light at the end of the tunnel," said James Hughes, chief market analyst at Alpari UK.
“Many will be asking just how much lower this oil price can go before some kind of stabilising effect kicks in, however after every $10 fall experts have been calling the end of the slide but have seen it continue to drop like a stone.”
Aggreko leads gains after contract wins
Temporary power provider Aggreko has signed a two-year contract with Energia Argentina and extended another deal in Africa. Aggreko will deliver an extra 150MW of diesel-fuelled power in Argentina. The group has additionally agreed to extend its existing 300MW of capacity with the same customer about two more years.
Despite a record-breaking Christmas week, Sainsbury's third-quarter like-for-like sales declined 1.7%, better than the 3.2% fall City analysts had expected. However, the supermarket group, the first of the major grocers to report after the festive period before Tesco follow on Wednesday and Morrisons next week, warned that it expected the fourth quarter to be "similar to that of our first half", which fell 2.1%.
In December budget airline Easyjet saw a 3.2% increase in the number of passengers flown to reach 4,634,977, whilst the company’s load factor improved by half a percentage point to reach 88.4%. On a rolling 12-month basis the number of passengers carried grew by 6.5% to hit 65.3m.
In 2014 homebuilder Persimmon achieved a 17% increase in legal completions to reach 13,509 new homes, for a 36% rise in the number of new homes delivered to the market over the last two years. The average selling price improved by 5% last year, to reach £190,500.
Homebuilder and construction outfit Galliford Try saw a solid performance over the first half of the year ending on 31 December, with unit completions rising by 12.5% and the integration of the recently acquired Miller Construction business said to be proceeding substantially ahead of plan.
techMARK 2,926.67 +0.53%
FTSE 100 6,394.41 +0.44%
FTSE 250 15,832.32 +0.34%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Aggreko (AGK) 1,495.00p +3.96%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 968.50p +2.65%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 466.20p +2.60%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 177.40p +2.13%
Tesco (TSCO) 182.35p +1.99%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 964.40p +1.83%
National Grid (NG.) 912.20p +1.72%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 914.00p +1.56%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,126.00p +1.53%
Prudential (PRU) 1,458.00p +1.50%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Fresnillo (FRES) 781.00p -1.20%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,751.00p -1.19%
Sage Group (SGE) 455.00p -1.04%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,134.00p -0.87%
BG Group (BG.) 842.70p -0.68%
BP (BP.) 388.85p -0.56%
Glencore (GLEN) 282.55p -0.55%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 394.00p -0.53%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 3,072.00p -0.52%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,674.00p -0.48%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Renishaw (RSW) 2,200.00p +6.85%
esure Group (ESUR) 217.80p +3.12%
Galliford Try (GFRD) 1,264.00p +2.35%
Interserve (IRV) 543.50p +2.35%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 125.30p +2.29%
NMC Health (NMC) 470.20p +2.22%
Restaurant Group (RTN) 656.50p +2.10%
SSP Group (SSPG) 277.90p +1.98%
Ladbrokes (LAD) 104.40p +1.85%
Britvic (BVIC) 664.50p +1.84%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Card Factory (CARD) 275.90p -3.63%
Soco International (SIA) 269.70p -2.99%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 544.50p -2.68%
Jimmy Choo (CHOO) 171.40p -2.61%
Drax Group (DRX) 412.80p -2.39%
Debenhams (DEB) 75.50p -2.14%
Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 108.70p -1.81%
Ted Baker (TED) 2,249.00p -1.58%
Afren (AFR) 41.16p -1.51%
Infinis Energy (INFI) 212.00p -1.40%