London open: Stocks rise on Asian cues; PMIs in focus
London stocks rose in early trade on Tuesday, taking their cue from a positive session in Asia, which was boosted by the Federal Reserve’s latest stimulus announcement.
At 0840 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 3.6% at 5,172.24, while sterling rose 0.9% against the dollar to 1.1644.
London Capital Group analyst Jasper Lawler said: "The Federal Reserve kitchen sinking it has gone some way to calm markets. With a little time to review, there were some astonishing measures taken.
"For us there were three standout measures were Number 1: Open ended QE, which means the Fed will just keep buying as they see fit with no restraint. Number 2: Lending directly to businesses completely bypassing high street banks in the process. Number 3: Corporate bond buying where the Fed can even buy corporate bond ETFs in the stock market."
Market participants were still waiting for Congress to agree on a roughly $2trn rescue package.
Meanwhile, news that Italy was starting to a see a slowdown in new cases of the coronavirus also helped to underpin sentiment.
On home shores, Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared the start of a three-week lockdown on Monday evening, albeit a much less restrictive one than Germany, Italy and France.
Later in the day, all eyes will be on the release of UK manufacturing and services PMIs.
Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: "Analysts are estimating that the UK manufacturing reading will arrive at 45.1 against February’s 51.7, with its services counterpart at 45.0 compared to last month’s 53.2. It wouldn’t exactly be a surprise, however, to see that both sectors had contracted far faster than those estimates would suggest."
In equity markets, miner BHP was the standout gainer, closely followed by oil giants Shell and BP, as investors sifted through a few more Covid-19 updates.
Rio Tinto said it will curtail operations in South Africa and Canada to comply with measures imposed by the countries' governments in response to the Covid-19 crisis. The FTSE 100 miner said all mining at its Richards Bay Minerals operation in South Africa would cease by midnight on 26 March for three weeks.
JD Sports Fashion said it was pulling guidance and delaying publication of full-year results after the UK government ordered non-essential shops to close down in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Homeware retailer Dunelm confirmed it was closing all of its stores and said it will not be paying a dividend due to the virus outbreak.
House builder Redrow cancelled its dividend and said it expected its sales rate to be "seriously impaired" over the coming weeks, forecasting labour and materials shortages.
Miniature wargames manufacturer Games Workshop said its performance has been hit by the Covid-19 outbreak and that it will be closing its stores, headquarters, factory and warehouses in the UK and the US with immediate effect.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 5,172.24 3.57%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 13,460.27 2.92%
techMARK (TASX) 3,023.86 2.62%
FTSE 100 - Risers
BHP Group (BHP) 1,208.40p 9.28%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,165.80p 9.20%
Carnival (CCL) 896.20p 8.24%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,443.50p 8.13%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,214.80p 7.75%
BP (BP.) 276.20p 7.51%
Evraz (EVR) 224.80p 7.00%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 6,680.00p 6.85%
Experian (EXPN) 2,006.00p 6.59%
Ferguson (FERG) 4,351.00p 6.49%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
ITV (ITV) 58.68p -2.23%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 330.70p -1.61%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 751.60p -1.57%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,606.00p -1.32%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,576.50p -0.35%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 199.00p -0.20%
Unilever (ULVR) 3,930.00p -0.06%
Centrica (CNA) 39.11p 0.00%
Pennon Group (PNN) 989.80p 0.06%
National Grid (NG.) 800.40p 0.09%
FTSE 250 - Risers
PureTech Health (PRTC) 234.00p 17.00%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 320.30p 12.23%
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 1,294.00p 11.36%
Bank of Georgia Group (BGEO) 903.00p 11.07%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 207.00p 9.70%
G4S (GFS) 83.26p 8.81%
IWG (IWG) 143.65p 8.62%
Electrocomponents (ECM) 492.30p 8.08%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 43.87p 8.05%
Rotork (ROR) 210.50p 7.92%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Sirius Real Estate Ltd. (SRE) 46.00p -5.35%
Dunelm Group (DNLM) 630.00p -4.76%
Ninety One (N91) 148.00p -4.52%
Virgin Money UK (VMUK) 52.48p -3.71%
Games Workshop Group (GAW) 4,146.00p -3.40%
Elementis (ELM) 46.66p -3.20%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 19.56p -3.17%
Helios Towers (HTWS) 119.60p -3.16%
Fisher (James) & Sons (FSJ) 1,206.00p -2.58%
Vistry Group (VTY) 592.50p -2.55%