London open: Stocks nudge up but BP gushes lower after Q4
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London stocks nudged a touch higher in early trade following uninspiring leads from the US and Asia, as investors sifted through some corporate news.
At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.2% to 7,187.14.
Spreadex‘s Connor Campbell said: “By the looks of things Tuesday could rival Monday in the dullness stakes, with precious little new for the European markets to grapple with this morning.
“The FTSE opened around 5 points down, back within the 7150 to 7200 trading bracket that it has made its home for the past few weeks. The pound, meanwhile, continued the trends put in place yesterday, with a 0.3% fall against the dollar (leaving it just above $1.24) joined by a 0.3% rise against the Draghi-weakened euro (approaching €1.165 in the process).”
On the corporate front, oil giant BP gushed lower after its fourth-quarter profits fell short of target and the company said cash flow will not increase in 2017 as it hikes its level of disposals and capital expenditure to return the business to growth in the medium term. A fourth-quarter underlying replacement cost profit of $400m resulted in a full year profit of $2.6bn, a 56% drop from the previous year.
DCC racked up healthy gains after it said third-quarter profit was “strongly” ahead of the previous year and in line with expectations as the business support services firm agreed to buy Esso’s retail petrol station network in Norway as part of its plan to extend its presence in Europe.
UK and North America passenger transport operator FirstGroup advanced as it reported that group revenue in the third quarter rose by 12.8%, benefiting from favourable currency translation but was flat at constant currency. The group said the trend of overall trading and expectations for the full year was unchanged.
Housebuilder Bellway rallied as it posted a 6.5% jump in housing completions in the six months to the end of January and said it expects to build 5% more homes this year. Peers followed suit, with Barratt Developments, Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey all in the black.
Rentokil Initial edged up after announcing the acquisition of Atlanta-based pest control group Allgood Services of Georgia for an undisclosed sum.
Playtech rose as it said it was buying Eyecon, a specialist supplier of online gaming slots software to an international customer base, for up to £50m.
With no major UK data releases due, investors will turn their attention to the US, where trade balance figures are at 1330 GMT.
CMC Markets‘ Michael Hewson said: “The main focus today as European markets look to open slightly lower is the latest US December trade numbers for December which are expected to show a deficit of $45bn. Given the propensity for Donald Trump to tweet about how US economic data has been when it’s been good, it’s quite likely that we could see some comments about the size of the deficit, particularly in relation to recent comments that have been made about surplus countries like Germany, and China, whose numbers are out later this week.”