London open: Stocks edge higher in quiet trade as dollar claws back losses

London stocks edged higher in fairly quiet trade on Monday as the pound gave back some gains against the dollar.

At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.2% to 7,678.19, while the pound was flat against the euro at 1.1393 and down 0.3% versus the dollar 1.4125.

Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said the dollar’s move higher was “nothing to write home about”, especially given the recent 19-month and three-year lows the greenback has hit against the pound and the euro, respectively.

“But it is better than what the currency endured in the first half of last week, and at the moment the dollar will take whatever it can get,” he said.

The start of the week kicked off in fairly quiet fashion, with no major data releases due on Monday, though a meeting in Brussels will formally agree negotiating terms on the Brexit transition period.

Things will pick up on Tuesday with the release of UK net lending and mortgage approvals and an important Brexit debate in the House of Lords and get busier stateside too, with President Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address, while the Fed meeting on Wednesday and non-farm payrolls on Friday will also be market highlights.

In corporate news, Anglo American rose after announcing the sale of the New Largo thermal coal project and Old New Largo closed colliery in South Africa for ZAR 850m ($71m).

John Laing Infrastructure advanced as it said there would be “minimal” service disruption from the Carillion collapse but that it expects additional advisory and transaction costs to be approximately £3m in aggregate.

GKN nudged just a touch lower as it looked to clear up a dispute over its pensions deficit as it battles to stave off a hostile takeover from smaller rival Melrose Industries. The FTSE 100 group said its group pension scheme's deficit stood at £0.7bn on one basis of accounting at the end of December, or could be as low as £0.4bn on an actuarial basis or as high as £1.4bn if gilt yields do not rise.

Relx Group fell after agreeing to buy California-based security technology company ThreatMetrix for £580m in cash.

On the broker note front, EasyJet flew lower after a downgrade to ‘market perform’ at Bernstein, while Diageo dropped after a downgrade to ‘sector perform’ at RBC Capital Markets and Polymetal was hit by a downgrade to ‘underweight’ at JPMorgan.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,678.19 0.17%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,692.89 0.38%
techMARK (TASX) 3,485.09 0.37%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 476.79p 1.23%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,753.80p 1.11%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 865.00p 1.08%
Glencore (GLEN) 406.03p 1.03%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 950.20p 0.98%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,979.00p 0.93%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 2,213.00p 0.87%
Evraz (EVR) 387.00p 0.86%
Shire Plc (SHP) 3,467.00p 0.81%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,629.50p 0.80%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

easyJet (EZJ) 1,666.00p -1.36%
Diageo (DGE) 2,532.50p -1.04%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,359.50p -0.66%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,907.50p -0.64%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,404.00p -0.58%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 5,072.00p -0.45%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 4,757.00p -0.44%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,006.40p -0.40%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 6,702.00p -0.37%
GKN (GKN) 434.90p -0.25%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Sirius Minerals (SXX) 23.65p 2.04%
John Laing Infrastructure Fund Ltd (JLIF) 115.60p 1.94%
Rank Group (RNK) 230.00p 1.77%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 305.40p 1.60%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 514.50p 1.48%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 516.50p 1.47%
Purecircle Limited (DI) (PURE) 420.00p 1.45%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 1,141.00p 1.42%
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 181.03p 1.42%
McCarthy & Stone (MCS) 150.70p 1.41%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 528.00p -3.30%
Polymetal International (POLY) 833.60p -2.32%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 189.80p -1.79%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,106.00p -1.25%
Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 304.30p -1.07%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 227.90p -1.00%
Workspace Group (WKP) 998.00p -0.99%
RDI Reit (RDI) 35.05p -0.99%
Renewi (RWI) 102.00p -0.97%
Softcat (SCT) 513.00p -0.97%