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London open: Stocks little changed; Smiths Group rallies on results
London stocks were little changed in early trade on Friday following a slightly negative close in the US, where a key vote on a healthcare bill was postponed.
At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was flat at 7,339.09.
On Thursday, the US congressional vote on the repeal of Obama’s Affordable Care Act was delayed by 24 hours, adding to concerns that Donald Trump lacks enough support in the House of Representatives and may struggle to get approval for all the stimulus policies he has promised.
“However markets aren’t panicking,” said Accendo Markets‘ Mike van Dulken.
“This is thanks to suggestions that a favourable vote isn’t a prerequisite for work to begin on other measures like tax cuts and infrastructure spending. However, it would mean Republicans, who have hated ACA since its 2010 birth, have to accept it will stay. An ultimatum, if you like, setting markets up for a dollop of weekend risk.”
Ipek Ozkardeskaya said the FTSE 100 was being held back by the pound’s rally to $1.2530 on the back of solid retail sales data released on Thursday.
“Higher inflation, solid retail sales, combined to several Bank of England (BoE) members’ concerns about keeping the bank rate at the current historical low level for a longer period of time should continue supporting the pound recovery,” she said.
On the UK data front, BBA mortgage approvals are at 0930 GMT, with some potentially market-moving European and US reports are due out throughout the day including services and manufacturing purchasing manager’s surveys.
Among London’s corporate news, engineer Smiths Group was on the front as it reported flat first-half revenues of £1.6bn on an underlying basis but growth of 18% on a reported basis thanks to the weak pound.
Land Securities nudged lower after confirming it was in discussions with Deutsche Bank on pre-letting a site for the German banking giant’s London headquarters.
Acacia Mining fell after saying there has been no change on the Tanzanian government’s ban on exports of gold and copper ore despite efforts by the company. The miner has been “engaging with key government official and other stakeholders” in order to lift the ban which has been in effect since 3 March.
Syncona gained ground after it noted that Blue Earth Diagnostics – which it funds – had received a positive opinion recommending that Axumin be granted marketing authorisation in the European Union from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency.
Domino’s Pizza was a little weaker after Berenberg cut its price target on the stock, while Restaurant Group retreated after the bank cut its stance on the stock to ‘sell’.
Soco International was lifted by an upgrade to ‘equalweight’ from Barclays, while Spirent Communicatinos was boosted as Liberum upped the stock to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’.
SEE slipped as HSBC cut it to ‘hold’ but National Grid pushed higher as Morgan Stanley resumed coverage at ‘overweight’.
