Selasa, 02 Januari 2024

FTSE 100 Live: Stocks called higher; shop price inflation unmoved - Proactive Investors UK

  • FTSE 100 up 17 points at 7,751
  • Shop price inflation unchanged in December
  • Aldi and Lidl report strong Christmas sales

9:15am: WPP eye outgoing BP boss as next Chair - Sky

A bit of City gossip to report.

Outgoing BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A) chief executive Philip Jansen has been approached about the next chair of marketing services firm WPP, according to a report from Sky News.

Jansen, who is set to leave BT in the spring, is reportedly one of a number of candidates to have been considered in recent weeks for the WPP chairmanship.

Sky cited City sources as saying WPP's search was yet to reach an advanced stage and that there was no certainty that Jansen or WPP would opt to progress his candidacy further. 

Shares in WPP are down 0.4%. 

8:50am: Tesco up as Aldi and Lidl reports strong Christmas sales

Retailers have been marked higher ahead of trading updates which will show the winners and losers over the festive period. 

Alongside figures showing shop price inflation was unchanged in December, discount retailers Aldi and Lidl have reported strong Christmas sales. 

Aldi said that sales topped £1.5 billion for the first time in the four weeks to Christmas Eve, with sales up 8% year-on-year, while Lidl said that its deluxe product range underpinned a 12% year-on-year sales increase in December, as shoppers sought a “touch of luxury at lower prices”. 

Both chains said that Friday December 22, the last weekday before Christmas, proved to be a record trading day with Aldi, the UK’s fourth biggest chain, saying 2.5 million customers used its stores for their full festive shop. 

Food retailers Tesco is up 0.9% and Sainsbury is up 0.1% while Marks & Spencer is up 1.6%. 

M&S also drew praise from BNP Paribas Exane which named it among its top picks in the European retail industry for 2024 and a potential winner from the Christmas period. 

B&M European Value Retail is also enjoying a good morning, up 1.6%. 

8:17am: Bright start for stocks as oil majors climb

The FTSE 100 has made a bright start to the year as a rise in the oil price boosted index heavyweights, BP PLC (LSE:BP.) and Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL). 

At 8:15am, London’s blue-chip index was up 14.31 points, 0.2%, at 7,747.55 while the FTSE 250 was down 12.24 points, 0.1% at 19,677.39. 

Richard Hunter, head of markets at interactive investor, commented “Whether markets can continue the momentum of a strong year-end rally remains to be seen, but the early indications give some cause for optimism.” 

But Hunter added initial tests of investors’ mettle will come thick and fast during the month with the release of the US non-farm payrolls report on Friday. 

The price of Brent crude rose 1.6% to $78.25 in early trading after Iran sent a warship into the Red Sea increasing fears of an escalation in hostilities.  

Iran dispatched its warship in response to the US Navy’s sinking of three Houthi boats over the weekend. 

The rise pushed BP up 1.1% and Shell 0.9%.  

Elsewhere, on a quiet day for company news Balfour Beatty rose 1.1% after announcing an initial £50 million tranche of its 2024 share buyback programme. 

Analysts at Liberum expects that there will be £100 million of buybacks in total and expects this to maintain “the upward pressure on the shares.” 

7:52am: UK first-time buyers lowest in a decade

Some data on the housing market as well, with the number of first-time buyers in the UK, who bought a home with a mortgage, falling to its lowest level in a decade in 2023, according to a leading lender. 

Yorkshire Building Society said there were an estimated 290,000 first-time buyers in 2023, down a fifth compared with 2022, when the number reached 370,000, and the lowest since 2013, when the total was 260,000. 

Yorkshire said were finding it harder to meet lenders’ affordability requirements. 

Ben Merritt, the Yorkshire’s director of mortgages, said: “First-time buyers are the lifeblood of the market and are still clearly keen to buy … The wider market relies on them, not least to support purchases higher up the chain.” 

7:36am: Shop price inflation unchanged in December

It's a quiet morning for company news but traders will be examining shop price inflation data as they dust down their desks after the holiday break.

The figures showed UK shop price inflation was unmoved at 4.3% in December as a price rise on non-food items offset easing costs on food. 

The British Retail Consortium also warned that cost pressures threaten to put an end to cooling inflation in 2024. 

The BRC-NielsenIQ shop price index was up 4.3% in December from a year before, the annual rise slower than the three-month average rate of 4.6% and the lowest since June 2022. 

Food inflation slowed to 6.7% last month, down from 7.7% in November, falling for an eighth month in a row. 

But non-food price inflation rose to 3.1% from 2.5% in November as prices bounced back after Black Friday discounts and before the January sales.

Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the BRC said: “Retailers will continue to do all they can to keep prices down in 2024, but there are obstacles on the road ahead [including] new border checks for EU imports, [and] hundreds of millions more on business rates bills from April." 

7:00am: Stocks called higher ahead of PMI figures

The FTSE 100 is expected to start the New Year on the front foot amid a raft of manufacturing PMI data, including for the UK. 

Spread betting companies are calling London’s blue-chip index up by around 10 points after closing up 10.50 points at 7,733.24 on Friday. 

In Asia, China's manufacturing sector saw a slight expansion in activity last month, according to survey data.  

The Caixin purchasing managers' index edged up to 50.8 points in December from 50.7 in November. 

Figures for the UK will be released at 0930 GMT. 

Investors will also be reacting to data which showed UK shop price inflation was unchanged at 4.3% in December, its lowest level in a year and a half. 

However, the British Retail Consortium warned that cost pressures threaten to put an end to easing inflation in 2024. 

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2024-01-02 06:59:00Z
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