London midday: Stocks maintain gains; retail sales in focus

London stocks were still in the black by midday on Tuesday as investors mulled the latest UK retail sales data and with easyJet flying high on the back of upbeat broker notes.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.7% at 8,372.26.

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said: "December is Santa rally territory and so far, it’s got off to a good start. European equity markets are a sea of green on Tuesday, and French markets are bouncing back.

"For now, the markets are ignoring the geopolitical risks bubbling around the world. The French government is poised to collapse at some point this week, and China has decided to ban the export to the US of some items that can be used for military purposes, including gallium, geranium and other superhard materials.

"It will also use implement a stricter screening process for graphite exports to the US, which is a crucial input to produce lithium batteries. It will be interesting to see how Elon Musk reacts to this, and it suggests that the rest of the world will meet President Trump’s war on global trade blow for blow."

On home shores, industry data released earlier showed that retail sales fell in the run-up to Black Friday.

According to the BRC-KPMG retail sales monitor, total retail sales fell by 3.3% year-on-year last month, versus 2.6% growth in November 2023.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, pointed out that the November figures did not include Black Friday this year.

"While it was undoubtedly a bad start to the festive season, the poor spending figures were primarily down to the movement of Black Friday into the December figures this year," she said.

"Even so, low consumer confidence and rising energy bills have clearly dented non-food spending. Spending on fashion was particularly weak as households delayed purchases of new winter clothing, while health spending was boosted by the season’s arrival of coughs and colds.

"Retailers will be hoping that seasonal spending is delayed not diminished and that customers get spending in the remaining weeks running up to Christmas. If not, retailers will be feeling the squeeze from both sides as reduced revenues are met with huge additional costs next year."

In equity markets, easyJet flew higher after Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Peel Hunt lifted their price targets on the stock.

Oil giants BP and Shell were among the top gainers on the FTSE 100 as oil prices edged higher ahead of this week’s OPEC+ meeting.

Discoverie Group surged as it hailed a "resilient" first-half performance and said it was on track to meet full-year expectations.

Victrex also gained despite reporting a slide in annual profits, after the polymer specialist said 2025 had got off to a "solid" start.

Upper Crust and Ritazza owner SSP rallied as it reported a jump in full-year profit and revenue as good performances in North America, UK and APAC & EEME helped to offset a disappointing performance in Continental Europe.

Currys was knocked lower by a downgrade to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ at Deutsche Bank, which cited caution on "the scale of the budget impact, both the magnitude of cost inflation and potential for return of category spending".

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 8,372.26 0.71%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,901.66 0.64%
techMARK (TASX) 4,723.26 0.57%

FTSE 100 - Risers

easyJet (EZJ) 568.20p 3.88%
Centrica (CNA) 130.10p 3.05%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,750.50p 2.13%
BP (BP.) 388.30p 2.12%
Glencore (GLEN) 384.35p 2.00%
Entain (ENT) 820.60p 1.81%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 582.40p 1.75%
Shell (SHEL) 2,554.00p 1.61%
Kingfisher (KGF) 253.70p 1.60%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 343.20p 1.60%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,954.00p -1.57%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,553.00p -0.97%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 4,136.00p -0.58%
Vistry Group (VTY) 627.50p -0.56%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 235.60p -0.51%
Beazley (BEZ) 790.50p -0.44%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 400.10p -0.37%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 102.35p -0.34%
Bunzl (BNZL) 3,586.00p -0.33%
SSE (SSE) 1,768.50p -0.28%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Discoverie Group (DSCV) 742.00p 17.85%
Victrex plc (VCT) 1,004.00p 14.03%
SSP Group (SSPG) 180.40p 11.54%
Paragon Banking Group (PAG) 789.50p 5.15%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 59.00p 4.59%
Close Brothers Group (CBG) 217.00p 3.83%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 83.20p 3.61%
OSB Group (OSB) 406.40p 3.46%
Bank of Georgia Group (BGEO) 4,830.00p 3.42%
Auction Technology Group (ATG) 557.00p 3.36%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Currys (CURY) 79.05p -2.47%
Indivior (INDV) 869.00p -1.02%
Hays (HAS) 77.90p -1.01%
Kainos Group (KNOS) 762.00p -0.91%
CMC Markets (CMCX) 282.50p -0.88%
The Global Smaller Companies Trust (GSCT) 163.60p -0.85%
Games Workshop Group (GAW) 14,100.00p -0.84%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 311.50p -0.80%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 230.20p -0.78%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 1,044.00p -0.76%