(Sharecast News) – London stocks had flattened out by midday on Friday as investors eyed the latest US non-farm payrolls report, although housebuilders were still sharply higher after a well-received update from Barratt Developments.
The FTSE 100 was up just 0.1 % at 6,860.99.
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said: “Today’s non-farm payrolls shouldn’t make too much difference to sentiment as investors are only really focussed on the path forward with vaccines and stimulus. Nevertheless, it’s expected the US economy added 50-60k jobs last month. Weekly initial claims were steady at 787k in the week ended Jan 2nd, from an upwardly revised 790k in the prior week.”
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.
Investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown was lifted by an upgrade to ‘buy’ at Shore Capital and as Barclays reiterated its ‘overweight’.
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 advanced as it upgraded its full-year profit guidance following strong sales growth in December.
Energean was boosted by an upgrade to ‘outperform’ from ‘sector perform’.
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) 6,860.99 0.06%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,121.28 0.53%
techMARK (TASX) 4,183.48 -0.28%
FTSE 100 – Risers
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,635.50p 4.17%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 714.40p 3.69%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,460.50p 3.33%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,539.00p 3.21%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 8,956.00p 3.08%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 546.00p 2.75%
Halma (HLMA) 2,623.00p 2.46%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 544.00p 2.45%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 9,224.00p 2.28%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 168.70p 2.27%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
BT Group (BT.A) 141.95p -3.34%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,765.50p -3.23%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,208.50p -3.13%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 241.30p -2.90%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 108.70p -2.16%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 128.90p -1.72%
BAE Systems (BA.) 491.50p -1.56%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 410.70p -1.52%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 181.55p -1.30%
Next (NXT) 7,598.00p -1.25%
FTSE 250 – Risers
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 447.20p 7.09%
Energean (ENOG) 919.20p 5.33%
Avon Rubber (AVON) 3,525.00p 5.22%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 318.00p 4.19%
Essentra (ESNT) 330.60p 3.83%
XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 4,950.00p 3.34%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 8,956.00p 3.08%
Indivior (INDV) 105.00p 2.94%
Clarkson (CKN) 2,870.00p 2.87%
C&C Group (CCR) 247.00p 2.70%
FTSE 250 – Fallers
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 400.60p -17.72%
Signature Aviation (SIG) 400.50p -4.16%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 32.35p -4.01%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 221.40p -3.06%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 1,794.40p -2.83%
RHI Magnesita N.V. (DI) (RHIM) 3,648.00p -2.72%
Ultra Electronics Holdings (ULE) 2,026.00p -2.41%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 130.30p -2.32%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 204.00p -2.11%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 138.45p -2.05%
