20th Aug 2019 12:05
(Alliance News) - London stocks were building on recent gains on Tuesday as the previous session's optimism over US-China trade talks and German economic stimulus flowed into a second day. Helping the FTSE 100 index's move higher were grocers J Sainsbury and Ocado, following the latest Kantar data, while miner BHP Group provided a small drag after missing market forecasts for its annual results. The FTSE 100 was up 32.78 points, or 0.5%, at 7,222.43. The UK's headline stock index had closed up 1.0% on Monday."A broad improvement in global risk sentiment has helped the benchmark recoup some of the recent declines, but the outlook remains a little fragile going forward," David Cheetham at XTB commented on the FTSE 100's rise on Tuesday."Despite the latest move higher the index remains below last week's high and at the moment the price action looks more like a consolidation after last Wednesday's rout rather than a clear longer term bottom."And this all comes ahead of some highly anticipated events this week, including the release on Wednesday of the minutes from US Federal Reserve's most-recent policy meeting and the start on Thursday of the Jackson Hole banking symposium, at which Fed Chair Jerome Powell will speak.The FTSE 250 index of London mid-caps was up 47.86 points, or 0.3%, at 19,145.83 Tuesday midday. The AIM All-Share was up 0.1% at 865.18.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.4% at 12,245.12. The Cboe UK 250 was up 0.4% at 17,031.82. The Cboe UK Small Companies was 0.1% lower at 10,907.13.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 0.3% and 0.2% higher respectively in afternoon trade.Stocks in the US were called for a marginally higher open, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 both seen up 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.2%.While stocks in London were higher on Tuesday, the pound slipped after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote to EU Council President Donald Tusk on Monday evening outlining his opposition to what he called the "anti-democratic" Northern Ireland backstop.In the letter, Johnson said that while he wants the UK to leave the EU with a deal, he could not support any withdrawal agreement that "locks the UK, potentially indefinitely, into an international treaty which will bind us into a customs union and which applies large areas of single market legislation in Northern Ireland".Johnson acknowledged that "time is very short" but said: "The UK is ready to move quickly, and, given the degree of common ground already, I hope that the EU will be ready to do likewise."Tusk, in response, wrote on Twitter: "Those against the backstop and not proposing realistic alternatives in fact support re-establishing a border."Sterling was quoted at USD1.2083 at midday, down from USD1.2139 late Monday.Kallum Pickering, a senior economist at Berenberg, said the letter moves the UK no closer to striking a Brexit deal with the EU, as the deadline looms."The letter does not represent a major step towards some resolution of the dispute with the EU and, in turn, an orderly Brexit on 31 October. It merely summarises the criticisms of the backstop long touted by the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative Party. It offers little in terms of substance which the EU will require before any serious discussions could begin," said Pickering.Among stocks helping the FTSE 100 rise on Tuesday were grocers. J Sainsbury was the top performer with a 2.6% share price rise.This was after the latest figures from Kantar showed the UK grocery market was flat in the past three months due to "tough" comparatives with last year's hot summer.In the 12 weeks to August 11, supermarket sales were flat compared to a year before, Kantar said, as July's hottest day on record in the UK wasn't enough to shift the market into growth.Ocado claimed the top spot as the UK's fastest growing grocer, increasing sales by 13% during the period. The online retailer increased its shopper base by 7% and encouraged its customers to spend GBP1.93 more each delivery, Kantar noted. Ocado shares were up 2.1% at midday.Meanwhile, Sainsbury's accounted for 15.4% of all UK supermarket sales during the 12-week period. Overall Sainsbury's sales fell by 0.6%, however. This was despite sales of branded goods rising by 1.5%, driven by higher levels of promotion and Sainsbury's price lockdown strategy.Tesco sales were down 1.6%, and Wm Morrison Supermarkets's down 2.7%. Wm Morrison shares were up 0.1% and Tesco was down 0.9%.Another blue-chip gainer was AstraZeneca, up 1.8% after the drugmaker reported positive results from the third phase of the DAPA-HF trial.The drugmaker said the study showed Farxiga met the primary composite endpoint with a reduction of cardiovascular death or the worsening of heart failure, compared to placebo. Farxiga is an oral once-daily SGLT2 inhibitor, indicated as both monotherapy and as part of combination therapy, to improve glycaemic control, with the additional benefits of weight loss and blood-pressure reduction.BHP dipped 1.0% after the miner missed market consensus for its annual results.For the 12 months to June, pretax profit rose 2.0% to USD15.05 billion the prior year, while underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation was broadly flat year-on-year at USD23.16 billion compared to USD23.18 billion. The figure fell short of the USD23.71 billion expected by analysts. BHP's annual revenue from continuing operations was USD44.29 billion, up 2.7% from a year earlier, but again below consensus of USD44.74 billion.Nonetheless, BHP is paying a "record" final dividend of 78 US cents a share, 25 cents above its policy of paying 50% of underlying attributable profit.In the FTSE 250, pub operator Mitchells & Butlers was up 4.5% - the top performer in the index - after Canaccord upped its rating on the stock to Buy from Hold.Elsewhere on the Main Market, Kin & Carta fell 11% after issuing a profit warning. The marketing services firm said profit for the year to July 31 is expected to be "marginally lower" than market forecasts due to increased investment. London Midday is available to subscribers as an email newsletter. Contact [email protected]
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