London open: Stocks edge up ahead of payrolls

London stocks edged higher in early trade on Friday as investors eyed the release of the latest US non-farm payrolls report.

At 0825 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 7,293.75.

Deutsche Bank said: "In terms of what to expect, our US economists are looking for a 400k increase in non-farm payrolls, which in turn would send the unemployment rate down a tenth to a post-pandemic low of 4.7%.

"The last couple of jobs reports have seen some downside surprises, but if realised, that +400k number would be the strongest jobs growth in three months. We’ve had some fairly positive labour market data in advance of the jobs report too, with the ADP’s report of private payrolls exceeding expectations on Wednesday at 571k (versus 400k expected), and yesterday the weekly initial jobless claims for the week through October 30 fell to a fresh post-pandemic low of 269k (versus 275k expected).

"The Fed made it clear this week that labour market evolution after the delta variant will be a key determinant in the future path of monetary policy."

The payrolls report, unemployment and average earnings are due at 1230 GMT.

On home shores, figures released earlier by Halifax showed the average UK house price topped £270,000 for the first time in October.

House prices rose 0.9% on the month following a 1.7% increase in September. On the year, prices were 8.1% higher in October, up from 7.4% growth the month before.

The average property now costs a record £270,027, with Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland continuing to outperform the UK average.

Russell Galley, managing director at Halifax, said: "One of the key drivers of activity in the housing market over the past 18 months has been the race for space, with buyers seeking larger properties, often further from urban centres. Combined with temporary measures such as the cut to Stamp Duty, this has helped push the average property price up to an all-time high of £270,027."

Earlier this week, Nationwide said that house prices hit £250,311 in October, topping a quarter of a million pounds for the first time.

In equity markets, British Airways owner IAG flew lower despite saying it narrowed third-quarter losses as more people started to travel with the lifting of Covid restrictions. The company posted an operating loss of €452m compared with a loss of €1.92bn last year when passenger travel came to a virtual standstill.

Morgan Advanced Materials rallied after it said full-year organic constant currency growth was set to be around the top end of its previous guidance range of 7% to 9%.

Beazley gained as the insurer reported higher-than-expected gross written premiums, driven by cyber & executive risk and its specialty lines divisions as it set aside $125m in natural disasters claims, including Hurricane Ida and the European floods.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,293.75 0.19%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,501.18 0.13%
techMARK (TASX) 4,657.52 0.37%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Entain (ENT) 2,062.00p 1.88%
BT Group (BT.A) 160.55p 1.74%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,362.50p 1.45%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,502.00p 1.32%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,790.50p 0.99%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 7,144.00p 0.90%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 451.40p 0.89%
Tesco (TSCO) 277.75p 0.78%
Barclays (BARC) 192.98p 0.77%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 628.00p 0.77%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Royal Mail (RMG) 440.10p -1.54%
Darktrace (DARK) 590.00p -1.50%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,313.50p -0.91%
Evraz (EVR) 602.40p -0.76%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 279.70p -0.75%
Kingfisher (KGF) 339.70p -0.73%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 661.40p -0.72%
Next (NXT) 8,030.00p -0.72%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,418.00p -0.58%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 6,336.00p -0.53%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) 350.50p 4.01%
Redde Northgate (REDD) 421.50p 2.93%
Tyman (TYMN) 392.00p 2.75%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 228.00p 2.70%
Hilton Food Group (HFG) 1,238.00p 2.15%
Beazley (BEZ) 404.00p 2.02%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 63.20p 1.94%
Allianz Technology Trust (ATT) 353.00p 1.29%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 2,410.00p 1.26%
CMC Markets (CMCX) 262.00p 1.16%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 212.00p -2.75%
Network International Holdings (NETW) 316.50p -1.59%
Reach (RCH) 311.50p -1.58%
TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 268.00p -1.47%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 321.50p -1.38%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 4,658.00p -1.31%
Trustpilot Group (TRST) 319.00p -1.30%
BH Macro Ltd. GBP Shares (BHMG) 3,630.00p -1.09%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 674.00p -1.03%
Virgin Money UK (VMUK) 176.15p -0.96%