London open: Stocks edge higher as focus shifts back to Brexit

London stocks edged a little higher in early trade on Tuesday as the trade truce rally ran out of steam and investors shifted their attention back to Brexit.

At 0840 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.2% to 7,077.43, while the pound was up 0.3% against the dollar at 1.2761 and 0.1% lower versus the euro at 1.1201.

Gains were fairly muted ahead of the five days of parliamentary debate on the Brexit withdrawal, which are due to kick off later on Tuesday. Before that, however, MPs will vote on whether the government broke Parliament's rules by failing to publish the full legal advice it received on the Brexit plan.

Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said it looks to all intents and purposes that Prime Minister Theresa May has already lost the argument.

"Defeat opens up various possibilities, including almost certainly a vote of no confidence and the potential for a fresh election. There is also, however, building momentum behind a second referendum."

On the data front, the construction PMI for November is due at 0930 GMT.

Market participants will also be eyeing Bank of England Governor Mark Carney's appearance in front of the Treasury Select Committee at 0915 GMT. He's expected to talk about the Brexit withdrawal deal and the UK's future economic relationship with the EU.

Broker notes provided much of the action, with Rightmove sitting pretty at the top of the FTSE 100 after an upgrade to 'buy' at Deutsche Bank and BT close behind as Goldman bumped the stock up to 'buy'.

On the downside, BAE Systems and Rolls Royce suffered the worst losses on the top-flight index after downgrades to 'neutral' and 'underperform', respectively, at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Standard Chartered was also weaker weaker on the back of a downgrade to 'hold' at Investec, while FTSE 250 construction group Kier suffered heavy losses after a downgrade to 'hold' at Canaccord.

In corporate news, heating and plumbing equipment supplier Ferguson was on the back foot even as it reported an 8.5% rise in first quarter revenue as North American operations offset a fall in the UK.

Revenue rose to $5.5bn from $5.11bn. The company said ongoing trading profit rose 9.9% to $432m, adding that it expected to meet full year expectations.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "Ferguson has made a strong start to the year, which should restore some confidence to what has proved to be a difficult few months of trading, even though the initial share price reaction reflects the ongoing fragility of sentiment.

"The cautious outlook and a stuttering UK performance at the full year results in early October prompted a sharp decline in the shares, which stand 20% lower since. Even now, there may be concerns regarding any slowdown in the US housing market, whilst the UK part of its operations, which currently represents 11% of revenues, remains finely balanced. In addition, acquisitions in the quarter totalling $284 million present further integration risks, whilst restructuring costs in the UK continue to linger."

Travis Perkins retreated as it lifted the lid on its new strategy, including improving returns in the general merchanting division, strengthening the performance of its Wickes chain and selling off its Plumbing & Heating division.

In other broker note news, RBC Capital Markets initiated coverage on a host of stocks in the European leisure sector.

Cineworld, Greene King, Domino's Pizza, Marston's, Merlin and Gym Group were all started at 'outperform'.

EI Group was initiated at 'sector perform', along with InterContinental Hotels and Whitbread, while JD Wetherspoon was started at 'underperform', along with Mitchells & Butlers.

Meanwhile, Liberum initiated coverage of motor retailers Motorpoint and Vertu at 'buy', and Pendragon was started at 'hold'.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,077.43 0.21%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,565.63 0.01%
techMARK (TASX) 3,485.38 0.05%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Rightmove (RMV) 460.80p 2.62%
BT Group (BT.A) 262.25p 2.20%
Fresnillo (FRES) 782.40p 1.40%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,453.00p 1.28%
Evraz (EVR) 494.20p 1.10%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,328.00p 1.09%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 340.70p 0.95%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 238.55p 0.78%
BP (BP.) 536.09p 0.77%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,277.00p 0.77%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

BAE Systems (BA.) 492.10p -1.78%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 868.40p -1.65%
Ferguson (FERG) 5,116.00p -1.60%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 180.70p -1.45%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,743.50p -1.42%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 340.30p -1.28%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 852.20p -1.27%
ITV (ITV) 141.92p -1.17%
CRH (CRH) 2,196.00p -1.13%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,837.50p -1.10%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,312.00p 3.31%
Inchcape (INCH) 577.50p 2.30%
Indivior (INDV) 101.03p 2.24%
Meggitt (MGGT) 539.60p 2.08%
Greene King (GNK) 554.20p 1.76%
Polymetal International (POLY) 793.80p 1.72%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 449.30p 1.70%
Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 1,668.85p 1.64%
Intu Properties (INTU) 114.95p 1.46%
Britvic (BVIC) 871.00p 1.46%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 21.64p -8.46%
Kier Group (KIE) 418.60p -6.14%
Capita (CPI) 103.55p -5.65%
Ted Baker (TED) 1,497.00p -3.42%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 184.30p -2.44%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,073.50p -2.36%
IP Group (IPO) 113.20p -2.25%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 265.20p -2.14%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,506.50p -2.11%
Ibstock (IBST) 208.60p -2.07%