- FTSE 100 advances 31 points to 8459
- Experian tops leaderboard on top-end results
- Burberry falls after warning of more challenging times
10am: Newspaper round-up
Looking around the business pages, there’s a few other stories worth noting.
The Guardian has a piece on delays to perishable goods coming into the UK.
Lorries carrying perishable food and plants from the EU are being held for up to 20 hours at border posts as failures with the government’s IT systems delay imports entering the country.
Another Brexit story angle is on the Financial Times, where they report HSBC and Deloitte have become the latest businesses to withdraw job offers to foreign graduates in the UK, as large employers are forced to reconsider contracts after the government introduced stricter visa rules.
On the FT home page the lead is that the US is “encouraging Arab states to join multinational postwar force in Gaza”, with a western official quoted as saying three Arab states have had initial discussions, including Egypt, the UAE and Morocco, “but they would want the US to recognise a Palestinian state first”.
Always entertaining, The Telegraph’s business section has a story about how Argenita’s president Javier Milei “plans to use Thatcher’s own creed to win over the Falklands”, and “sees rapprochement with the West as key to a transfer of sovereignty”. (Sister title The Spectator has a similar piece.)
Sky News is among several places with the story that Boeing could face prosecution in US over 737 MAX plane crashes.
A decision will be made by the summer on whether Boeing is to be prosecuted for the first time over the crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia that were blamed on both shoddy software and regulatory oversight, Sky reports.
There’s also a story there about how landlords have been accused of “holding parliament hostage” with the threat of selling up to stop tenants’ rights from being strengthened, coming on the eve of the controversial Renters Reform Bill entering the House of Lords for its second reading.
9.47am: IPO confirmed
Reflecting the confidence seen in global blue chips, Raspberry Pi, the pioneer of affordable single-board computers, confirmed its plans to go public in London, which would provide an extra boost for the Square Mile.
It announced its expected intention to float, though there was no precise timetable for the IPO or a price tag.
In its last fundraising round, the hobbyist microcomputer outfit was valued at just over £440 million, with the weekend reports suggesting this has risen to around £500 million.
9.33am: More balanced oil market expected
The monthly oil market report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) is out.
A “more balanced overall” oil market is expected in 2025, the IEA report says.
The OPEC+ cartel’s output is expected to rise 330,000 barrels per day (bpd) next year, assuming current curbs remain in place, flipping from an 840,000 bpd decline this year.
“Next year, the market looks more balanced overall. Even if OPEC+ voluntary production cuts were to stay in place, global oil supply could jump by 1.8 mb/d compared with this year’s more modest 580 kb/d annual increase,” the report said.
“The United States, Guyana, Canada and Brazil continue to dominate gains, even as the pace of the US supply expansion decelerates.”
Global oil inventories surged 34.6 million barrels in March, the report confirmed, with early data suggesting global oil stock levels rose further in April.
Oil prices are up this morning, with Brent futures up 0.47% per barrel to $82.77 and West Texas up 0.51% to $78.43.
9.16am: Record markets
Wider European markets are also in the green this morning, though the FTSE is leading the way with its 0.5% gain.
In Frankfurt, Milan and Madrid, the DAX, FTSE MIB and IBEX 35 are all up 0.4%, while in Paris the CAC 40 is up 0.3%.
The wider Stoxx 600 has gained 0.39% and the major global gauge of the MSCI All Country World Index added another 0.1% to its record closing high from yesterday.
It has rallied nearly 6pc since April as central banks gear up for interest rate cuts, including the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.
“Global equities are on a tear – the MSCI All Country World Index closed at a record high last night and the US tech-heavy Nasdaq also hit a record closing high last night,” notes market analyst Victoria Scholar at Interactive Investor.
Susannah Streeter at Hargreaves Lansdown, says: “The feel-good factor is still washing through London markets as investors spy interest rate cuts on the horizon, despite signs prices are proving sticky.”
Despite macroeconomic data not proving that supportive in recent days, investors are staying pretty sanguine, she says.
“Markets still expecting painful borrowing costs to ease this year, even though cuts are now expected to come later than hoped. The key CPI reading in the United States later will be crucial as far as sentiment is concerned, as it looks set to indicate that patience will be needed, before the Fed will feel comfortable about lowering rates.”
Earlier, the People’s Bank of China held off from injecting the faltering economy with more stimulus, opting to keep its key lending rate on hold.
8.57am: FTSE 100 hits another intraday high, FTSE 250 big gains too
The Footsie has notched another new intraday high, up almost 46 points to 8,474.
And while it itsn’t always the case that the FTSE 250 rises in sync with its larger sibling, with the mid-cap index having a more domestically focused mix of constituent companies than the strongly international FTSE 100, but this morning both indices are up.
The 250 is up 78 points or 0.4% to 20,697 and there are some big risers doing the heavy lifting.
Top of the mid-caps is Hunting PLC (LSE:HTG), up 17% after it announced a record $145 million OCTG order with the Kuwait Oil Company.
First revenues are expected to be recognised towards the end of the year, and this has helped swell the group sales order book to a record $665 million and management’s full-year profit expectations to the top end of its current guidance of $125-135 million for 2024.
Elsewhere, geotechnical contractor Keller Group PLC (LSE:KLR) has risen 14% after saying it also expects a strong performance this year.
It said the strong momentum it reported at its results in March has continued, well ahead of the prior year, which when combined with a “strong” order book and recent contract wins means the board expect this year to be “materially ahead” of original expectations.
This pair of gains makes the 9% jump for soft drinks maker Britvic PLC (LSE:BVIC) seem relatively flat, though it announced a new share buyback after enjoying good progress from all three of its main business units.
It pointed to “standout growth” from Pepsi MAX, Ballygowan, MiWadi, Fruit Shoot and Lipton.
8.30am: Gains maintained
London’s blue-chip index is holding onto almost all those initial gains, now up just under 40 points as a mix of results and broker comments provides an upward lift on a day that could turn either way later with the release of US inflation data.
Credit checking agency Experian (LSE:EXPN) is top of the risers, up almost 8% to a new all-time high as organic revenue growth topped analyst expectations and guidance confirmed more of the same for the current year.
Cigarette maker Imperial Brands is up 3% as price rises offset and lower losses from its ‘next-generation products’ offset lower tobacco volumes.
Another riser is British Gas owner Centrica, up 2.9% on the back of a positive Barclays write-up, where analysts suggest the share price de-rating is “unwarranted”.
After reporting a 34% fall in profits and warning that tough times are likely to continue, Burberry is one of the main fallers, down 2.9%.
Catering giant Compass is down even further, 3.2%, despite upping profit guidance for the current year as a result of its strong first-half performance and positive outlook.
8.10am: FTSE 100 surges to new all-time high
The FTSE 100 has woken up on the right side of bed, jumping to an immediate all-time intraday high.
It’s up 43 points or 0.5% to 8,471.53 in initial trades.
Top of the risers is Experian (LSE:EXPN), up 7.5% on the back of final results, which boss Brian Cassin boasted were at the top end of expectations.
“For FY25, we expect further strategic progress and expect to deliver organic revenue growth in the range of 6-8%,” he says, also predicting that profit margins will expand.
Imperial Brands is another doing some lifting of the index, up 1.6% on the back of results seen below.
7.58am: Imperial Brands profits boosted by price hikes
Cigarette maker Imperial Brands PLC (LSE:IMB) reported first-half operating profits roughly in line with expectations as price rises and reduced losses from new technologies were offset by currency movements.
Underlying operating profit of £1.67 billion in the six months to 31 March, down 2.7% on a reported basis but rose 2.8% at constant currency rates. Analysts on average expected a £1.68 billion profit.
Revenues of £15.06 billion were down 2.3% as pricing increases of 8.6% more than offsetting a 6.3% tobacco volume decline.
Next-generation products (NGPs) like vaping and heat-not-burn saw an 16.8% increase in revenue as strong growth in Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific more than offset declines in the US.
An interim dividend of 44.9p per share was declared, up 4%, with £604 million of share buybacks completed in period, as part of plans to buy back £1.1 billion this year.
7.42am: Vodafone launches first tranche of buyback
After cutting its dividend yesterday, Vodafone Group PLC (LSE:VOD) has this morning launched a €500 million share buyback, as promised last night.
Having announced its results in the morning, late yesterday the telecoms group confirmed that the sale of Vodafone Spain to Zegona Communications (LSE:ZEG) was on track to complete by the end of the month after final approval was received from the Spanish authorities.
When the sale completes, Vodafone will receive around €4.1 billion in cash and €0.9 billion in the form of redeemable preference shares.
It said the €500 million buyback was the initial part of its plans to return €2.0 billion over 12 months.
7.29am: Burberry profits under pressure
Burberry Group PLC (LSE:BRBY) results are one of those out this morning, with profits down by more than a third as the UK fashion house says the “backdrop of slowing luxury demand has been challenging”, which is expected to continue in coming months.
Revenues came to £2.97 billion for the year to 31 March, down 4% but flat if exchange rate effects are ignored and in line with analyst forecasts.
Retail comparable store sales were down 1%, which was worse than the 0.8% decline that City analysts expected.
Adjusted operating profit fell 34% to £418 million but with margins of 14.1% higher than analyst estimate of 13.9%.
The outlook, where management point to “a still uncertain external environment”, the first half of the new financial year is expected to remain challenging.
7.13am: New FTSE highs predicted
The FTSE 100 is expected to zoom up towards new record highs on Wednesday morning, extending gains from yesterday after an upbeat Wall Street session overnight.
On spread-betting platforms, London’s index was being called just over 31 points higher, having added 13 points to finish the day before at 8,428.13, just shy of a record closing high.
Last night US stocks shrugged off higher than expected factory gate price inflation figures, with the Nasdaq Composite index ending the day up 0.75%, ahead of the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average, up 0.5% and 0.3% respectively.
The big data print of the week, or month, is today, with the US consumer price index due this afternoon.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” says market analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya at Swissquote Bank.
“Yesterday was one of those days when investors insisted on seeing a glass that was one-tenth full as completely full,” she said, also noting the producer price data, new US tariffs on Chinese imports, a speech by Federal Reserve president Jerome Powell calling for patience on rates.
“All eyes are on the US CPI update today. Both headline and core inflation are expected to have moderated last month. If that’s the case, the risk rally will likely continue. And if it’s not the case, the risk rally could continue, as well,” she said.
In London we have a host of corporate updates, including from Burberry, Imperial Brands and Experian.
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
