London open: FTSE edges towards record ahead of construction data, payrolls

London's FTSE 100 was edging towards the 7,600 mark early on Friday, taking its cue from a positive US session as investors waited the release of UK construction data and the all-important non-farm payrolls report.

At 0830 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.6% to 7,589.73, while the FTSE 250 set another intraday record as it topped 20,080, with equities underpinned by a record close for all three main US indices following the release of a solid ADP employment report. The ADP report released on Thursday showed the US private sector added 253,000 jobs in May, comfortably surpassing expectations for a 185,000 gain and raising expectations ahead of the payrolls report.

Meanwhile, the pound was down 0.2% versus the dollar at 1.2860.

Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said the FTSE appears to be gunning for a new record.

“As for the pound, with no new polls - yet - to cause it to panic it got off to a rather dull start, dipping 0.1% to 0.2% against both the dollar and the euro. Sterling has tended to do better in the afternoon than the morning this week, once the early political news has been fully digested. Today, however, sees the latest US jobs report, and with the Fed looking to raise rates this month a strong non-farm figure could cause cable’s initial losses to widen.

“Before all that the UK has its own data to deal with, namely May’s construction PMI. Like its manufacturing counterpart the reading is forecast to see a month-on-month decline, from 53.1 to 52.7, though yesterday’s figure did just about beat expectations.”

The US payrolls report is due at 1330 BST, along with the unemployment rate. Before that, the UK construction PMI is at 0930 BST. The consensus forecast is for an increase of 186,000 in the payrolls. This would be a touch below the 211,000 in April, but still in line with the six-month average 184,000.

On the corporate front, satellite communications provider Inmarsat racked up healthy gains after it said it had ordered a new high-speed broadband satellite after winning a major contract with Qatar Airways, although there was no news regarding the takeover speculation that emerged earlier in the week.

GlaxoSmithKline was also in the black after it and its majority-owned specialist HIV company ViiV Healthcare, which is also held by Pfizer and Shionogi as shareholders, announced regulatory submissions to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a single-tablet, two-drug regimen of dolutegravir and rilpivirine, for the maintenance treatment of HIV-1 infection.

Metro Bank advanced after saying it has completed the purchase of a portfolio of UK mortgages from Cerberus for £596.7m.

EasyJet was boosted by a positive note from HSBC, which upped its price target on the airline to 1,550p from 1,450p saying it expects evidence of the business’s recovery to build into the summer. British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines Group was also trading higher.

On the downside, Whitbread was hit by a downgrade to ‘sell’ at Goldman Sachs.

B&M European Value Retail fell after the family investment vehicle of chief executive Simon Arora and his brothers offloaded £454.3m worth of shares in the discounter.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,589.73 0.60%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,054.71 0.22%
techMARK (TASX) 3,670.23 0.44%

FTSE 100 - Risers

easyJet (EZJ) 1,418.00p 2.01%
BT Group (BT.A) 308.25p 1.45%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,617.00p 1.38%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 610.00p 1.33%
Carnival (CCL) 5,095.00p 1.19%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,369.50p 1.15%
Worldpay Group (WPG) 317.80p 1.08%
CRH (CRH) 2,857.00p 1.06%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 334.30p 1.06%
Old Mutual (OML) 192.70p 1.05%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Whitbread (WTB) 4,222.00p -1.77%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,300.00p -0.82%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,579.00p -0.75%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,075.00p -0.52%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,151.50p -0.30%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,402.00p -0.28%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 189.50p -0.26%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 815.50p -0.24%
BP (BP.) 468.95p -0.22%
Next (NXT) 4,391.00p -0.20%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Caledonia Investments (CLDN) 3,000.00p 1.90%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 859.50p 1.78%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 476.10p 1.77%
CYBG (CYBG) 266.50p 1.68%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 415.50p 1.54%
Brewin Dolphin Holdings (BRW) 350.30p 1.54%
Just Group (JUST) 137.90p 1.47%
SIG (SHI) 156.00p 1.43%
Fidelity European Values (FEV) 223.40p 1.36%
Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) 93.50p 1.30%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 357.50p -3.48%
Marshalls (MSLH) 401.80p -2.59%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,276.00p -2.37%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 506.50p -2.31%
Allied Minds (ALM) 145.50p -2.28%
Rank Group (RNK) 216.70p -1.68%
Card Factory (CARD) 326.50p -1.24%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 174.30p -1.19%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 709.00p -1.18%
Polymetal International (POLY) 986.50p -1.15%