London open: Stocks edge up ahead of BoE policy announcement
London stocks edged up in early trade on Thursday as investors eyed the latest policy announcement from the Bank of England.
At 0830 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 7,090.21.
Kallum Pickering, senior economist at Berenberg, said: "We see a roughly even chance that the BoE could surprise markets today by signalling that it will end its planned asset purchases in August, instead of December as previously announced.
"While such a change would not have major economic consequences, it could take bond markets by surprise. Any commensurate jump in gilt yields could trigger a temporary correction in equity markets."
On the corporate front, Crest Nicholson rallied after the housebuilder said it swung to a first-half profit and upgraded its full-year profit guidance amid solid demand. Peers followed suit, with Berkeley, Barratt, Taylor Wimpey, Vistry and Bellway all up.
Distribution specialist Bunzl gained after it said first-half revenue is expected to increase by around 1% at actual exchange rates and 6% - 7% at constant rates as a recovery in its base business, including the food service and retail sectors was largely offset by a fall in Covid-related orders.
Wealth manager Rathbone Brothers was weaker after it raised net proceeds of around £49m in a placing to help fund the £150m acquisition of UK financial planning business Saunderson House. The company placed just over 2.8m ordinary shares with institutional investors at 1,760p each, which is a 7.9% discount to the closing share price on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, United Utilities, Vodafone, British Land, Airtel Africa, Tate & Lyle, LXI Reit and JD Sports were all in the red as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,090.21 0.23%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,679.45 0.09%
techMARK (TASX) 4,470.48 -0.10%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 4,753.00p 2.90%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,450.00p 2.81%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 708.00p 1.61%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 162.90p 1.43%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 468.30p 1.10%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,260.00p 1.08%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,281.50p 1.02%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,593.00p 0.98%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 495.00p 0.88%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 5,616.00p 0.86%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
United Utilities Group (UU.) 985.40p -3.49%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 126.96p -2.83%
British Land Company (BLND) 508.80p -1.93%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,233.00p -0.52%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 694.40p -0.52%
BP (BP.) 322.60p -0.49%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 899.40p -0.42%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,416.60p -0.37%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,237.00p -0.31%
Informa (INF) 514.20p -0.31%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Chrysalis Investments Limited NPV (CHRY) 251.00p 3.29%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 444.40p 3.25%
PureTech Health (PRTC) 357.00p 3.18%
Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 252.50p 2.23%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,084.00p 2.07%
Network International Holdings (NETW) 385.70p 1.71%
Vistry Group (VTY) 1,225.00p 1.37%
Bellway (BWY) 3,397.00p 1.34%
Hilton Food Group (HFG) 1,092.00p 1.30%
IMI (IMI) 1,737.00p 1.22%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
LXI Reit (LXI) 136.00p -5.82%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 746.20p -2.91%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 81.85p -2.91%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 222.90p -2.66%
Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 1,860.00p -2.62%
Rank Group (RNK) 170.00p -1.85%
Energean (ENOG) 759.00p -1.62%
Edinburgh Inv Trust (EDIN) 621.00p -1.27%
easyJet (EZJ) 962.00p -1.19%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 1,862.00p -1.09%