London open: Banks pace the advance as BoE lifts dividend restrictions

London stocks rose in early trade on Tuesday, outperforming their European peers as banks led the charge after the Bank of England removed dividend restrictions on the sector.

At 0850 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 7,144.30 after the Bank said it was removing restrictions on dividend payouts introduced in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic as the sector remains "well-capitalised" and "resilient".

HSBC, NatWest, Lloyds and Barclays all rallied.

Shore Capital analyst Gary Greenwood said: "We believe this will open the door for the UK banks to announce further shareholder distributions alongside their interim results which are due to be published during the last week of July and first week of August.

"We expect this news to be welcomed by the market and should act as a positive catalyst to share price performance for a sector that has weakened off in recent weeks."

Elsewhere, British Land was higher after it said rent collection was improving and activity at its retail parks was close to pre-pandemic levels as lockdown restrictions were eased.

Redde Northgate gained after the commercial vehicle hire business said it had bought Charged Electric Vehicles (ChargedEV), a charging equipment supply and installation specialist, for an undisclosed sum.

Shell gushed higher after an upgrade to ‘overweight’ at Barclays, while Dr. Martens was boosted by an upgrade to ‘buy’ at Goldman Sachs.

Howden Joinery advanced as it said trading was strong in the first half and ahead of its expectations, with revenue ahead of the same period in 2020 and 2019.

On the downside, Centamin lost its shine after Liberum reiterated its ‘sell’ rating on the gold producer.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,144.30 0.26%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,934.54 0.17%
techMARK (TASX) 4,466.26 -0.12%

FTSE 100 - Risers

HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 420.00p 1.73%
NATWEST GROUP PLC ORD 100P (NWG) 210.20p 1.64%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 47.92p 1.59%
Barclays (BARC) 175.12p 1.39%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 97.02p 1.34%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 707.60p 1.23%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,441.80p 1.22%
British Land Company (BLND) 525.80p 1.15%
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 2,665.00p 1.14%
Persimmon (PSN) 3,010.00p 1.11%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

AstraZeneca (AZN) 8,680.00p -0.94%
Smurfit Kappa Group (CDI) (SKG) 3,954.00p -0.78%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,925.00p -0.71%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 6,449.00p -0.62%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 7,904.00p -0.48%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,432.80p -0.42%
Sage Group (SGE) 700.80p -0.40%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 2,036.00p -0.39%
Avast (AVST) 497.40p -0.36%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,481.50p -0.30%

FTSE 250 - Risers

PureTech Health (PRTC) 362.00p 5.54%
Dr. Martens (DOCS) 464.60p 4.17%
Howden Joinery Group (HWDN) 876.80p 2.89%
Trustpilot Group (TRST) 353.60p 1.78%
JPMorgan Emerging Markets Inv Trust (JMG) 134.20p 1.51%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 452.40p 1.39%
Redde Northgate (REDD) 433.50p 1.29%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 398.00p 1.27%
Essentra (ESNT) 295.50p 1.20%
Rank Group (RNK) 173.00p 1.17%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Centamin (DI) (CEY) 102.00p -1.45%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 426.40p -1.18%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 753.40p -1.18%
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 1,340.00p -1.18%
WH Smith (SMWH) 1,610.00p -0.83%
easyJet (EZJ) 892.40p -0.80%
C&C Group (CDI) (CCR) 226.20p -0.79%
Trainline (TRN) 285.80p -0.76%
Future (FUTR) 3,120.00p -0.76%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 156.20p -0.76%