London open: Stocks edge down on weak Asian cues; Rightmove rallies

London stocks edged lower in early trade on Monday, taking their cue from a downbeat session in Asia.

At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 0.2% at 7,471.69.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "With other global markets giving the UK little to go on, the main indices again showed few signs of life in opening exchanges.

"The premier index drifted lower, with an oil price which has drifted given OPEC uncertainty over the rearranged and upcoming meeting putting some pressure on the majors, with BP and Shell weaker.

"The FTSE100 is still keeping its head above water so far this year - just - although the 0.2% rise could evaporate very quickly."

In equity markets, Ladbrokes and Coral owner Entain was knocked lower by a downgrade to ‘sell’ from ‘buy’ at Goldman Sachs.

"We now believe the inflection of fundamentals will take longer to come through, leading us to cut our estimates (by circa 30% at EPS for FY24/25E)," GS said.

On the upside, Rightmove rallied after it lifted its full-year forecast for annual revenue per advertiser as it hailed strong demand for its products since it last reported. The company now expects ARPA growth to be between £112 and £116, up from previous guidance of £103 to £105.

West End landlord Shaftesbury Capital was also in the black as it hailed a "strong" start to the Christmas trading, with footfall high and sales tracking above the prior year. The company said customers reported sales up 12% on 2022 levels and 16% above 2019 levels.

Aviva was in focus as it agreed to buy Optiom from Novacap and other minority shareholders for around £100m. Optiom, which operates as a managing general agent (MGA), is a provider of vehicle replacement insurance in Canada and offers flexible payment options to customers.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,471.69 -0.22%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,469.31 0.06%
techMARK (TASX) 4,119.76 -0.04%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Rightmove (RMV) 533.40p 4.75%
Fresnillo (FRES) 535.20p 1.25%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 552.00p 1.25%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 708.80p 1.17%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,693.00p 1.09%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 149.60p 0.94%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,750.00p 0.92%
Haleon (HLN) 334.95p 0.71%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 127.15p 0.67%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,387.00p 0.63%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Entain (ENT) 838.40p -2.40%
Shell (SHEL) 2,569.00p -1.00%
BP (BP.) 472.55p -0.83%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,351.00p -0.73%
St James's Place (STJ) 657.00p -0.73%
Prudential (PRU) 915.20p -0.69%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 10,112.00p -0.67%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,202.00p -0.65%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,455.00p -0.57%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 12,550.00p -0.55%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,603.50p 3.72%
Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT) 93.50p 3.66%
Shaftesbury Capital (SHC) 118.80p 2.06%
Trainline (TRN) 295.80p 2.00%
Essentra (ESNT) 161.60p 1.89%
Allianz Technology Trust (ATT) 283.00p 1.80%
International Distributions Services (IDS) 256.60p 1.58%
easyJet (EZJ) 411.40p 1.58%
Just Group (JUST) 84.40p 1.44%
Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) 722.00p 1.40%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

W.A.G Payment Solutions (WPS) 87.20p -5.22%
LXI Reit (LXI) 94.50p -2.43%
Energean (ENOG) 954.00p -2.25%
IntegraFin Holding (IHP) 251.00p -2.18%
JPMorgan Japanese Inv Trust (JFJ) 472.00p -1.67%
AJ Bell (AJB) 273.00p -1.37%
HICL Infrastructure (HICL) 131.80p -1.35%
Currys (CURY) 46.62p -1.27%
Impax Environmental Markets (IEM) 359.50p -1.24%
VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Ltd. (VOF) 452.00p -1.20%