London midday: Stocks maintain gains; Ocado surges
London stocks were still in the black by midday on Tuesday as investors digested the latest UK jobs data, helped along by a strong showing from Ocado and the mining sector.
The FTSE 100 was up 0.4% at 7,259.05, while sterling was 0.3% firmer against the dollar at 1.3251.
Figures released earlier by the Office for National Statistics showed unemployment fell as businesses continued to hire staff despite the end of the furlough programme. The number of people jobless and seeking work dropped by 127,000 to 1.423 million in the three months to the end of October. The jobless rate edged down to 4.2% from 4.3%.
The ONS said the number of people on payrolls exceeded pre-pandemic levels across the country and has continued to rise. Much of the recent growth has been among part-time workers, who were hit hard at the start of the crisis.
"With no sign of the end of the furlough scheme hitting the number of jobs, the total of employees on payroll continued to grow strongly in November," Darren Morgan, the ONS's economic statistics director, said. But he said the figures could include people recently made redundant who were working their notice.
The figures suggest the labour market remained strong despite the withdrawal of government support to cover the wages of workers temporarily told not to report for work. Some economists had feared a surge in unemployment as government support measures came to an end.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "The FTSE 100 was off to a strong start on Tuesday, recovering some of yesterday’s losses as investors await the big central bank action to come this week and as concern over the Omicron variant continues to wax and wane.
"More signs of a tightening jobs market may be good news for employees but could also add to inflation concerns ahead of the Bank of England’s meeting on Thursday.
"However, a move on rates looks unlikely given the uncertainty over the economic impact of Omicron."
In equity markets, miners rallied as copper and aluminium prices rose, with BHP, Antofagasta and Anglo American all higher.
Ocado surged the top of the FTSE 100 after the online supermarket group said it had won a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Norwegian robotics company AutoStore Holdings in the International Trade Commission. The news came alongside Ocado’s fourth-quarter results, which showed revenue fell 3.9% year-on-year, as it felt the impact of labour shortages.
On the downside, BT slumped after French telecoms giant Altice said it had increased its stake in the London-listed group to 18% and reiterated that it had no plans to stage a takeover under UK rules. Altice, owned by Patrick Drahi, bought a further 585.5m BT shares after building a 12% stake in June at a cost of £2.2bn - making it BT’s biggest shareholder.
Rentokil slid after agreeing to buy Terminex in a stock and cash deal that values the business at roughly $7.6bn.
BAE Systems and Qinetiq were both knocked lower by downgrades at JPMorgan, while Rotork was weaker after a downgrade to ‘add’ at Peel Hunt.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,259.05 0.38%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,673.42 0.12%
techMARK (TASX) 4,400.68 -0.56%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,752.00p 10.12%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,475.00p 2.32%
BHP Group (BHP) 2,175.00p 2.30%
British Land Company (BLND) 513.40p 2.07%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 6,818.00p 1.97%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,411.00p 1.77%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,829.00p 1.70%
Barclays (BARC) 181.06p 1.64%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,821.00p 1.54%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 45.02p 1.50%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 577.40p -7.53%
BT Group (BT.A) 164.05p -6.18%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,259.00p -2.22%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 5,642.00p -1.88%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 15,830.00p -1.37%
Sage Group (SGE) 817.20p -1.26%
ITV (ITV) 107.55p -1.15%
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 3,055.00p -1.13%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 6,160.00p -1.06%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,277.50p -1.01%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Britvic (BVIC) 921.50p 2.96%
Capita (CPI) 37.79p 2.80%
Hammerson (HMSO) 31.85p 2.68%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 45.19p 2.40%
CMC Markets (CMCX) 235.00p 2.40%
Ibstock (IBST) 191.90p 2.35%
LXI Reit (LXI) 148.20p 2.21%
Savills (SVS) 1,390.00p 2.06%
BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 556.00p 2.02%
Greencore Group (CDI) (GNC) 130.60p 1.95%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Reach (RCH) 248.50p -6.75%
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 1,106.00p -4.66%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 1,198.00p -2.64%
QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 243.60p -2.56%
Kainos Group (KNOS) 1,746.00p -2.35%
SSP Group (SSPG) 217.70p -2.33%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 334.50p -2.14%
Mitie Group (MTO) 59.80p -1.97%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 220.00p -1.87%
Auction Technology Group (ATG) 1,380.00p -1.85%