London open: All eyes on UK retail sales report for July

Stocks in London started higher on Thursday with select financials and miners pacing gains as investors waited on the July retail sales report.

London’s FTSE 100 was trading 14.59 points higher at 6,873.74 and cable was up 0.14% to 1.3060 as of 08:25 BST.

Investors were keen to assess how, if at all, Brexit might have impacted consumer's spending habits, with traders and analysts divided as to the eventual outcome.

In any case, Markit's UK household finance index, published in the previous session, had revealed expectations regarding their future finances had recovered to a five-month high, Brexit notwithstanding.

“Concerns seem to have eased in line with the removal of some of the immediate political uncertainty arising from the shock referendum result, combined with a strong monetary policy response from the Bank of England aimed to cushion the economy and head off any lurch towards recession. In particular, those households with tracker mortgages will be seeing a swift beneficial impact on their finances," Jack Kennedy, senior economist at Markit, said.

The UK retail sales are scheduled for 0930 BST.

Traders were also digesting the minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s 26-27 policy meeting released on Wednesday night showed a continued reluctance on the part of rate-setters in the US to jump to any conclusions about the state of the economy.

Policymakers were divided on the pace of rate hikes needed, meaning a September move is unlikely.

The minutes stated that, regarding the near-term outlook, members of the Fed's rate-setting "generally agreed that the prompt recovery in financial markets following the Brexit vote and the pickup in job gains in June had alleviated two key uncertainties about the outlook that they had faced at the time of the June meeting”.

Commenting on the content of the minutes, Michael Gapen and Rob Martin at Barclays said: "If the August employment report, scheduled for release on September 2 (after the Economic Policy Symposium at Jackson Hole), is solid, then we expect the Fed to raise rates at its September meeting.

"That said, the concerns in some corners of the committee about the inflation outlook may support a shift in the reaction function away from observed labor market progress toward actual progress on inflation. Should this policy shift take place, then the next rate increase is likely to be deferred to December, if not further into 2017."

Back on the data front, US, initial jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed survey are at 1330 BST, while leading indicators are at 1500 BST.

In corporate news, sales slowed only slightly in the second quarter for Kingfisher as B&Q and Screwfix grew strongly in the UK and Ireland to offset a decline in France. Chief executive Véronique Laury called the group like-for-like rise of 3.0% a "solid" sales performance, after the 3.6% gain in the first quarter, adding that management remain cautious on the short-term outlook although there had been no clear evidence of any Brexit impact on demand so far.

Having overcome a technical failure early last month, Fresnillo's San Julián milling facility has successfully begun processing ore and operations at the leaching plant were on Thursday confirmed as having run "normally" for a week.

The $515m silver-gold project has an expected average production of 10.3m ounces of silver and 44,000 ounces of gold per year once the second phase is commissioned by year-end and it reaches full capacity.

Crude oil began flowing from Tullow Oil's TEN fields offshore Ghana on time and on budget. First oil had started being pumped to its floating production offtake vessel Prof. John Evans Atta Mills from the Tweneboa, Enyenra, Ntomme (TEN), the company said in a statement.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,874.16 0.22%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,821.51 0.35%
techMARK (TASX) 3,511.32 0.22%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Anglo American (AAL) 883.20p 2.02%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,067.00p 2.01%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 552.50p 1.84%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,478.50p 1.72%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 238.10p 1.58%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,957.00p 1.56%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 189.80p 1.23%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 8,485.00p 1.19%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 368.50p 1.04%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 790.50p 1.02%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Pearson (PSON) 861.00p -2.44%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 206.90p -1.76%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,885.50p -1.24%
Schroders (SDR) 2,727.00p -0.80%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 4,100.00p -0.69%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 7,455.00p -0.43%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 5,048.00p -0.41%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,674.50p -0.36%
Unilever (ULVR) 3,611.00p -0.08%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,598.00p -0.06%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 176.30p 7.70%
Rotork (ROR) 206.30p 3.41%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 303.90p 3.16%
Circassia Pharmaceuticals (CIR) 96.30p 3.10%
ICAP (IAP) 472.90p 3.05%
IMI (IMI) 1,080.00p 2.86%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 240.70p 2.82%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 63.20p 2.76%
AO World (AO.) 160.00p 2.63%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 547.50p 2.24%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Evraz (EVR) 166.50p -3.70%
Laird (LRD) 297.50p -3.41%
Greggs (GRG) 1,004.00p -2.33%
The Renewables Infrastructure Group Limited (TRIG) 105.10p -2.32%
Tritax Big Box Reit (BBOX) 140.50p -2.29%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 5,505.00p -2.13%
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 245.80p -2.03%
Allied Minds (ALM) 361.40p -1.93%
Fidelity European Values (FEV) 177.00p -1.61%
Caledonia Investments (CLDN) 2,370.00p -1.46%