London midday: Stocks edge higher as pound drops after election poll gap narrows

London stocks had edged higher by midday, boosted by a weaker pound as the first poll since the Manchester bomb attack showed the Tory lead over Labour narrowing.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.2% to 7,529.84, having earlier hit an all-time intraday high of 7,535.06. The mid-caps on the FTSE 250 also topped the 20,000 level for the first time and were sitting 0.2% higher at 20,005.09 at noon on Friday.

The pound hit a one-week low against the dollar, trading down 0.7% to 1.2849, and a two-leek low versus the euro, down 0.8% to 1.1451 as the latest YouGov/Times results showed Labour has slashed the Conservatives' polls lead to just five points.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Theresa May still remains the favourite to win on June 8th, but recent events have taken their toll, which means the Conservatives need to get their act together, otherwise the perception will be that any win on June 8th is likely to be down to the poor quality of the opposition, and not a vote of confidence in her. That’s not a particularly healthy state of affairs to be in at a time when Brexit talks are due to start at the end of next month."

Oil prices reversed heavy losses to trade a touch higher, with West Texas Intermediate up 0.2% to $49.02 a barrel and Brent crude up 0.3% to $51.64.

Prices had fallen sharply after the Opec meeting in Vienna resulted in a nine-month extension of the previously agreed 1.8m barrel-a-day production cut, with analysts pointing to a case of buying the rumour and selling the fact and others saying nine months was not seen as long enough to eradicate the global surplus.

In corporate news, Informa was the top riser after it reiterated its full-year expectations and said first-quarter trading in Global Exhibitions remains strong, while trading in the events business is steady.

Restaurant Group surged after a first-quarter trading update which showed like-for-like sales fell 1.8%. The update prompted JPMorgan Cazenove to upgrade the stock to 'overweight' from 'neutral', as it said the company "has had a better start to 2017 than many in the market may have expected".

Retail property developer Hammerson nudged up after saying it has exchanged contracts for the sale of two retail parks to clients of BMO Real Estate Partners for £80m.

Spirax-Sarco Engineering rallied as it agreed to buy US-based electrical products provider Chromalox from Irving Place Capital for a cash-free, debt-free consideration of $415m (£319m).

FTSE 250 hospital group Spire Healthcare was also in the black as it said trading from 1 January to 25 May has been in line with expectations and reiterated its 2017 guidance.

On the downside, RBS was the biggest loser as the High Court pushed back until 1 June the start of a trial with a shareholder action group claiming compensation over its 2008 rights issue. The group is refusing to accept a settlement in their £700m legal claim against the bank, with the state-backed lender having offered about £200m, or 82p per share held.

Testing and certification group Intertek was in the red despite posting a 14% jump in revenues for the first four months of the year and saying it was on track to deliver its 2017 targets.

Credit checking agency Experian was weaker as Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock to 'sell' from 'hold' and cut the price target to 1,460p from 1,560p.

There are no major UK data releases due but in the US, first-quarter GDP is at 1330 BST.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,529.84 0.16%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,993.66 0.13%
techMARK (TASX) 3,619.05 0.35%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Informa (INF) 682.00p 4.84%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,235.00p 1.97%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,693.00p 1.68%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,135.00p 1.29%
WPP (WPP) 1,732.00p 1.23%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,636.50p 1.14%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,636.00p 0.99%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 281.30p 0.97%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,591.00p 0.95%
Croda International (CRDA) 3,978.00p 0.94%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 259.90p -2.29%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,035.00p -1.80%
Barclays (BARC) 210.35p -1.73%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 72.05p -1.44%
Standard Life (SL.) 384.20p -1.16%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,366.00p -1.01%
DCC (DCC) 7,340.00p -0.94%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,941.00p -0.94%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,393.00p -0.85%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,700.00p -0.80%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Restaurant Group (RTN) 350.20p 10.33%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 5,650.00p 6.40%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 2,296.00p 4.17%
Capita (CPI) 566.50p 3.75%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 807.50p 3.26%
Senior (SNR) 237.30p 2.82%
Softcat (SCT) 424.30p 2.79%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 370.70p 2.69%
FirstGroup (FGP) 153.90p 2.40%
BTG (BTG) 639.50p 2.32%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 404.50p -6.10%
Britvic (BVIC) 698.00p -3.46%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 727.00p -2.94%
Henderson Group (HGG) 229.10p -2.43%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 426.10p -2.29%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 900.50p -2.12%
ZPG Plc (ZPG) 367.30p -1.87%
Hunting (HTG) 539.00p -1.73%
Virgin Money Holdings (UK) (VM.) 300.10p -1.35%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 623.50p -1.34%