London open: Slights gains ahead of US non-farm payrolls data
UK stocks have started the session on the front foot ahead of the release of the monthly US non-farm payrolls report later in the session.
As of 0917 BST, the FTSE 100 was adding 0.27% or 19.09 points to 7,144.19.
The FTSE 250 meanwhile was up 0.35% or 79.78 points at 22,702.32.
Consensus is for the US jobs report, which is due out at 1330 BST, to show an increase in hiring from May's 559,000 to 700,000 people in June.
Economists at Unicredit however are calling for a slightly larger jump in job creation of 750,000, arguing that the "likely temporary" factors dragging on labour supply probably eased somewhat last month.
Some of those factors include workers' fear of infection if they return to work, childcare constraints and enhanced unemployment benefits.
Unicredit believes that a jobs report in line with its forecasts would support risk appetite.
For their part, analysts at Pantheon Macroeconomics are anticipating an even stronger reading of 1.0m jobs.
On a related note, overnight the International Monetary Fund projected that the Federal Reserve, America's central bank, will likely need to start hiking interest rates in late 2022 or early 2023.
The so-called 'tapering' of the Fed's asset purchases meanwhile is seen kicking off in the front half of next year.
As an aside, investor sentiment was likely also being helped by news from America's Johnson&Johnson that its Covid-19 vaccine is capable of neutralising the fast-spreading delta variant.
The UK reported 27,989 new Covid-19 cases between 25 June and 1 July, for a 72% jump versus the prior week, government data published the day before had revealed.
Yet as Kallum Pickering at Berenberg noted, the nine-fold rise in recorded infections in the UK since early May had been mostly recorded among people who had not yet been inoculated - namely the young.
"As long as the vaccines continue to work, we see no serious risk of further lockdowns. This reduces the risk of a major economic set-back," Pickering added.
Data on US durable goods orders in May and foreign trade figures for that same month were also due out, at 1330 BST and 1500 BST, respectively.
No major economic reports are scheduled for release in the UK on Friday.
On the broker front, analysts at Berenberg have upgraded their recommendation for shares of Informa from 'hold' to 'buy'. Over at Jefferies meanwhile, analysts have initiated coverage of defence group Chemring's shares at 'buy' with a target price of 370.0p.
Grafton completes purchase of Finland's IKH
Building materials distributor and retailer Grafton Group has completed the acquisition of Isojoen Konehalli Oy and Jokapaikka Oy, or ‘IKH’, it announced on Friday. It said IKH is one of the largest workwear, personal protective equipment (PPE), tools, spare parts and accessories technical wholesalers and distributors in Finland.
A shareholder revolt at JD Sports Fashion has resulted in the head of the company’s remuneration committee being voted off the board over anger at the retailer’s pay policies. JD Sports said almost 55% of voting shareholders rejected the re-election of Andrew Leslie, who had sat on the fashion group’s board for 11 years, forcing him to step down with immediate effect. The company said it would elect a temporary chair of its remuneration committee and begin the search for Leslie’s long-term replacement.
QinetiQ Group on Friday said David Smith will be retiring as chief financial officer and stepping down from the board on November 30 to be replaced by Lightsource CFO Carol Borg. Smith joined Qinetiq in January 2017. Borg will start work on October 11 “to enable a smooth transition period”, the company said in a statement.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,161.21 0.51%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,729.24 0.47%
techMARK (TASX) 4,493.79 0.59%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Informa (INF) 529.40p 3.28%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,964.50p 2.60%
Evraz (EVR) 610.00p 1.94%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 723.80p 1.74%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 102.48p 1.61%
Glencore (GLEN) 315.30p 1.55%
Entain (ENT) 1,803.00p 1.26%
Persimmon (PSN) 3,056.00p 1.19%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,619.00p 1.19%
Aviva (AV.) 412.00p 1.15%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 420.55p -0.66%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 465.00p -0.56%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 47.41p -0.44%
Rightmove (RMV) 655.00p -0.37%
Next (NXT) 7,968.00p -0.28%
Kingfisher (KGF) 366.60p -0.27%
NATWEST GROUP PLC ORD 100P (NWG) 206.50p -0.19%
BT Group (BT.A) 195.65p -0.18%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 2,159.00p -0.14%
Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 274.50p -0.07%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Cineworld Group (CINE) 85.74p 4.15%
FirstGroup (FGP) 89.70p 2.63%
Renishaw (RSW) 5,070.00p 2.59%
Just Group (JUST) 98.30p 2.40%
IWG (IWG) 322.60p 2.35%
GCP Student Living (DIGS) 166.80p 2.33%
Bellway (BWY) 3,376.00p 2.30%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 80.45p 2.22%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 435.80p 1.97%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 438.20p 1.81%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Dr. Martens (DOCS) 448.00p -1.84%
Drax Group (DRX) 420.20p -1.50%
PureTech Health (PRTC) 339.50p -1.02%
Indivior (INDV) 160.60p -0.93%
Essentra (ESNT) 294.50p -0.84%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 417.00p -0.83%
UK Commercial Property Reit Limited (UKCM) 76.50p -0.78%
Softcat (SCT) 1,770.00p -0.73%
XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 5,550.00p -0.72%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 2,270.00p -0.66%