London open: Stocks nudge lower as traders await fresh catalysts

London stocks nudged lower in early trade on Thursday as investors awaited fresh catalysts.

At 0830 BST, the FTSE 100 was down 0.2% at 7,094.85, ahead of the release of Markit’s services PMI for May at 0930 BST.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "Markets are treading water ahead of more economic data points which will further inform the inflation debate.

"One of the drivers of market jitters around inflationary pressures has been bottlenecks in the labour market, and over the next two days the jobless claims number and the non-farm payrolls reading will provide new evidence on the state of the nation.

"The oil price is another driver of concern as there does not seem to be any excessive supply coming on stream for the moment from the major producing countries. The price is ahead by 39% in the year to date, partially driven by an anticipated spike in demand, and the effect of this inevitably puts further upward pressure on prices.

"In the meantime, there has been a cautious move towards defensive stocks as investors position themselves for what could be a volatile couple of trading sessions."

In equity markets, National Grid was the worst performer on the FTSE 100 as it traded without entitlement to the dividend.

Discount retailer B&M European Value Retail fell after it warned 2022 UK revenues would be lower against tough comparatives as it reported better-than-expected annual profits.

BT was knocked lower by a downgrade to ‘sell’ from ‘hold’ at Deutsche Bank, while Experian lost ground after a downgrade to ‘underperform’ at RBC Capital Markets.

On the upside, Pennon rose as it announced a special dividend and the acquisition of Bristol Water Group.

Chemring advanced after it posted a rise in interim profit and revenue and announced the acquisition of Cubica Group, a Surrey-based research and development company specialising in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data fusion and autonomy.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,094.85 -0.19%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,923.42 -0.04%
techMARK (TASX) 4,373.16 -0.21%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,111.00p 1.27%
BHP Group (BHP) 2,208.00p 0.68%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,858.00p 0.60%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,012.50p 0.50%
Ferguson (FERG) 9,704.00p 0.46%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 6,306.00p 0.35%
Glencore (GLEN) 334.70p 0.34%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,608.00p 0.34%
Rightmove (RMV) 605.60p 0.33%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,490.00p 0.32%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

National Grid (NG.) 928.50p -3.34%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 545.40p -2.82%
BT Group (BT.A) 176.85p -1.97%
Kingfisher (KGF) 347.90p -1.67%
Experian (EXPN) 2,690.00p -1.50%
WPP (WPP) 996.80p -1.11%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 447.30p -0.97%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 479.50p -0.66%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,474.00p -0.66%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,611.00p -0.62%

FTSE 250 - Risers

FDM Group (Holdings) (FDM) 1,028.00p 4.26%
CMC Markets (CMCX) 500.00p 3.52%
Pennon Group (PNN) 1,106.00p 3.51%
Chemring Group (CHG) 317.00p 3.43%
Beazley (BEZ) 311.90p 2.43%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 58.56p 2.34%
Hill & Smith Holdings (HILS) 1,578.00p 2.33%
Essentra (ESNT) 323.50p 2.21%
Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 808.80p 2.07%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,246.00p 1.96%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Network International Holdings (NETW) 388.10p -3.70%
Indivior (INDV) 156.20p -1.76%
Helios Towers (HTWS) 175.00p -1.69%
Sanne Group (SNN) 762.00p -1.68%
easyJet (EZJ) 994.80p -1.55%
AJ Bell (AJB) 421.00p -1.45%
Computacenter (CCC) 2,664.00p -1.41%
Provident Financial (PFG) 243.20p -1.38%
Hilton Food Group (HFG) 1,154.00p -1.37%
XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 5,060.00p -1.36%