London open: Stocks edge higher in quiet trade

London stocks edged higher in quiet trade on Friday with little in the way of macroeconomic or corporate news to provide much direction.

At 0840 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.3% to 7,405.93 while the pound was down 0.2% versus the dollar at 1.2862.

Sentiment was stronger despite the worst losses in three weeks overnight on Wall Street as disappointing results from department store Macy’s fuelled fears that Friday's US retail sales report might provide another example of hard growth data being at odds with soft surveys data, said analyst Mike van Dulken at Accendo Markets.

The Bank of England's Thursday meeting provided a temporary dent the appetite in the pound, noted Ipek Ozkardeskaya at London Capital Group, after Governor Mark Carney said that "low rates are not excessive" and are "appropriate", also that wage growth is not expected to be especially fast.

In corporate news, AstraZeneca rallied as its durvalumab immuno-oncology drug became the first such medicine to successfully treat advanced lung cancer patients who had not had success with chemotherapy.

Support services group Interserve nudged higher after reiterating its guidance for full-year 2017 and saying trading in the first four months of the year has been in line in all divisions.

Standard Life was boosted by an upgrade to 'outperform' from 'sector performance' by RBC Capital Markets. Ibstock was lifted as Berenberg initiated coverage of the stock at 'buy' while Grafton was underpinned by an initiation at 'hold' by the same outfit.

Shaftesbury was given a leg up by an upgrade to 'buy' at Citigroup while IAG flew higher after an upgrade by Kepler.

On the downside, Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One fell after saying it expects to report around £47m of one-off costs for the year to the end of March 2017 after it renegotiated one of its larger film distribution arrangements as part of its wider reshaping of the film division.

Non-standard lender Provident Financial was also in the red despite announcing that its Vanquis Bank and Moneybarn operations had made a good start to the year, trading in line with internal plans and “making excellent progress” in delivering the initiatives to augment medium-term growth.

Temporary power provider Aggreko slippedas it announced the appointment of former British Gas and Virgin Media executive Stephen Beynon as managing director of the Power Solutions division.

Redefine International ticked lower after signing a 15-year lease with TK Maxx for a new 22,000 square foot store in Derby.

There are no major UK data releases due, but in the US, retail sales are at 1330 BST, along with the consumer price index, while Michigan consumer sentiment is at 1500 BST.

Societe Generale said: "In April, we expect that both headline and core inflation edged up by 0.2% month-on-month. However, while the annual core rate likely held steady at 2.0%, the headline rate could have slipped from 2.4% to 2.3% (2.26%, so we cannot rule out a drop to 2.2%).

"Meanwhile, after two straight headline drops, retail sales in April may have increased by 0.6% mom. The control group, which feeds directly into GDP calculations, could have posted a 0.3% mom advance."

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,405.93 0.26%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,813.94 0.09%
techMARK (TASX) 3,563.98 0.64%

FTSE 100 - Risers

AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,958.50p 4.44%
Standard Life (SL.) 391.60p 1.69%
Royal Mail (RMG) 428.20p 1.23%
ITV (ITV) 191.30p 1.22%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,645.00p 1.08%
Next (NXT) 4,344.00p 0.98%
BT Group (BT.A) 300.35p 0.84%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 603.00p 0.84%
Merlin Entertainments (MERL) 504.00p 0.80%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 607.50p 0.75%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,754.00p -2.28%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 863.50p -0.92%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,633.00p -0.91%
Glencore (GLEN) 287.90p -0.74%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 69.17p -0.70%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,166.00p -0.64%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,612.00p -0.56%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 4,142.00p -0.53%
Tesco (TSCO) 179.45p -0.50%
Provident Financial (PFG) 3,249.00p -0.49%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Ibstock (IBST) 240.30p 4.03%
Shaftesbury (SHB) 964.50p 1.74%
Just Eat (JE.) 569.00p 1.52%
Metro Bank (MTRO) 3,531.00p 1.49%
Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 1,877.00p 1.46%
Grafton Group Units (GFTU) 765.50p 1.39%
Victrex plc (VCT) 2,034.00p 1.19%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,878.00p 1.13%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 1,768.00p 1.09%
McCarthy & Stone (MCS) 188.00p 1.08%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Assura (AGR) 0.00p -100.00%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 749.50p -2.09%
Marshalls (MSLH) 401.40p -1.79%
Evraz (EVR) 197.80p -1.59%
Capita (CPI) 551.50p -1.52%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 162.40p -1.46%
HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited A Shs (HVPE) 1,267.00p -1.17%
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 162.60p -1.16%
Greencore Group (GNC) 237.10p -1.13%
PayPoint (PAY) 1,007.00p -1.08%