London open: FTSE edges up but gains muted amid recession fears

London stocks edged higher in early trade on Wednesday but gains were unspectacular as recession fears weighed.

At 0830 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 7,646.57.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "Markets are drifting as investor thoughts start to turn towards the scale of severity, as the likelihood of a recession later in the year in the US increases.

"Further evidence of a slowing economy came in the form of releases showing factory orders which dropped for a second month and, in particular, as job openings fell to the lowest level in almost two years. The resilience of the labour market to date has kept the Federal Reserve on high alert in its battle against inflation, and most recent data has tended to suggest that the interest rate hiking policy is now taking a measured effect on crimping growth."

Hunter added that as traders begin to rein in any new positions ahead of the long Easter weekend, markets were finding little reason to make any progress.

On the macro front, investors were eyeing the S&P Global/CIPS UK services PMI for March, due at 0930 BST.

In equity markets, catering group Compass rose following well-received results from France’s Sodexo, which said earlier that it plans to spin off and list its Benefits and Rewards Services business next year.

Elsewhere, insurer Direct Line rallied after a double upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘sell’ at Citi.

Engineering firm Wood Group racked up strong gains after it said late on Tuesday that it would "continue to engage with its shareholders" after private equity firm Apollo Global Management made a fifth and final takeover offer at £1.66bn.

On the downside, RS Group fell as it said it expects annual adjusted operating profit to be slightly ahead of estimates after a 1% rise in fourth-quarter like-for-like revenue despite weak electronics sales.

Hilton Foods was also weaker as it posted a drop in full-year profit and announced the appointment of a new chief executive.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,646.57 0.16%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,793.28 -0.12%
techMARK (TASX) 4,506.45 -0.06%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Compass Group (CPG) 2,049.00p 1.89%
Fresnillo (FRES) 780.00p 1.25%
BT Group (BT.A) 145.95p 1.11%
Barclays (BARC) 148.08p 1.08%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 2,070.00p 1.07%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 146.85p 0.93%
Beazley (BEZ) 595.00p 0.85%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 88.16p 0.78%
Centrica (CNA) 108.40p 0.74%
Abrdn (ABDN) 205.50p 0.74%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

RS Group (RS1) 858.80p -4.04%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,547.00p -1.79%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,823.00p -1.09%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 11,630.00p -0.98%
Informa (INF) 674.00p -0.97%
Halma (HLMA) 2,184.00p -0.91%
DCC (CDI) (DCC) 4,651.00p -0.85%
3i Group (III) 1,654.50p -0.84%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 165.10p -0.81%
Kingfisher (KGF) 255.00p -0.78%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 234.40p 5.40%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 149.80p 4.43%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 208.00p 4.00%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 107.00p 2.59%
Volution Group (FAN) 430.00p 2.23%
Edinburgh Worldwide Inv Trust (EWI) 156.00p 2.23%
TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 2,335.00p 2.19%
Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 800.00p 2.17%
LondonMetric Property (LMP) 179.40p 1.93%
Carnival (CCL) 703.60p 1.91%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Helios Towers (HTWS) 101.00p -2.98%
Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) 267.50p -2.73%
IWG (IWG) 164.10p -2.26%
Ibstock (IBST) 169.80p -2.08%
Molten Ventures (GROW) 271.20p -2.02%
Genuit Group (GEN) 265.00p -1.67%
Man Group (EMG) 217.40p -1.63%
SThree (STEM) 403.50p -1.47%
Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 128.10p -1.46%
Spectris (SXS) 3,632.00p -1.41%