London open: Stocks edge up ahead of payrolls; housebuilders rally
London stocks edged higher in early trade on Friday, with housebuilders in the black after a solid update from Barratt Developments, as investors eyed the latest US non-farm payrolls report.
At 0840 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 6,877.00.
Han Tan, market analyst at FXTM, said: "Fundamental investors will be focusing on the US non-farm payrolls release later today, amid expectations for a mere increase of 50,000 jobs in December. Such a figure would be a far cry from the millions of jobs that were restored in the months after the initial national lockdown was ended. A December NFP print of 50,000 would merely be one-fifth of the jobs added in the month prior which notably was below expectations, signaling that the post-lockdown recovery in the labour market is stalling.
"Still, the prospects of more fiscal stimulus under the incoming Biden administration should help tide the US economy over. After all, the President-elect did vow this week to mail out those US$2,000 cheques ‘immediately’ if the Democrats won the Georgia Senate runoffs."
The payrolls report, unemployment rate and average earnings are all due at 1330 GMT.
In equity markets, housebuilders were the standout gainers after Barratt Developments said it planned to restart dividends as it reported strong trading in the first half. Forward sales in the six months to the end of December rose 14.3% to 13,588 homes from a year earlier at a value of £3.2bn - up 19.4%.
Barratt rallied, along with Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Crest Nicholson and Vistry.
Rentokil was also on the front foot after saying that annual results would be slightly better than expectations but warning the outlook was uncertain because of uncertainty over one-off disinfection sales.
Pets at Home surged as it upgraded its full-year profit guidance following strong sales growth in December.
Shipping services firm Clarkson also gained as it said that full-year underlying profit for 2020 is expected to be ahead of market consensus, at between £42m and £45m.
On the downside, Signature Aviation fell, having risen sharply on Thursday, after it confirmed it had received an approach from private equity firm Carlyle Investment Management regarding a possible offer for the company.
Food and clothing retailer Marks & Spencer was weaker after it reported a fall third-quarter revenue as it warned the latest UK Covid lockdown would hit sales and the Brexit trade deal “significantly impact” some of its European operations.
Like-for-like revenue in the 13 weeks to December 26 fell 7.6% to £2.5bn with a 4.4% rise on food sales over the festive period offset by a 24.1% slump in clothing and homewares.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,877.00 0.29%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,159.06 0.71%
techMARK (TASX) 4,201.92 0.15%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 711.00p 3.19%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 544.20p 2.49%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,446.50p 2.33%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 168.65p 2.24%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,601.00p 1.97%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 4,854.00p 1.93%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,856.00p 1.85%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,492.00p 1.84%
Experian (EXPN) 2,874.00p 1.81%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,271.00p 1.76%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,224.50p -1.84%
BT Group (BT.A) 144.75p -1.43%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 245.10p -1.37%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 109.70p -1.26%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 404.70p -1.12%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,804.00p -1.12%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,405.00p -0.94%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 1,776.00p -0.78%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 130.14p -0.78%
Next (NXT) 7,642.00p -0.68%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 472.00p 13.03%
Energean (ENOG) 901.70p 3.32%
Clarkson (CKN) 2,880.00p 3.23%
BlackRock Smaller Companies Trust (BRSC) 1,748.00p 2.82%
Indivior (INDV) 104.80p 2.75%
Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) 1,099.00p 2.52%
WH Smith (SMWH) 1,592.00p 2.38%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 312.40p 2.36%
Trainline (TRN) 455.00p 2.34%
Essentra (ESNT) 325.80p 2.32%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 420.00p -13.74%
Signature Aviation (SIG) 398.60p -4.62%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 220.20p -3.59%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 32.75p -2.82%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 130.75p -1.99%
Sanne Group (SNN) 623.00p -1.89%
Apax Global Alpha Limited (APAX) 191.00p -1.44%
Syncona Limited NPV (SYNC) 264.00p -1.31%
Vivo Energy (VVO) 84.00p -1.18%
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 1,000.00p -0.99%