London open: Stocks gain after Wall Street records

London stocks rose in early trade on Tuesday after a solid session on Wall Street, which saw the Dow and S&P 500 hit record highs, and following well-received results from the likes of Reckitt Benckiser and Whitbread.

At 0835 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 7,240.92.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Once again, we’ve seen new record highs for the Dow and the S&P500, and while the Nasdaq is lagging behind, we still managed to see a strong finish there, with Tesla standing out, pushing above $1,000 a share, and in so doing becoming the latest US company to add another zero to its market cap with a valuation in excess of an eye watering $1trn.

"Facebook also reported a mixed set of Q3 numbers, beating on profits, but missing slightly on revenues, while downgrading revenue guidance for Q4 to between $31.5bn to $34.5bn, from $34.8bn. The shares initially dipped after hours; however, the blow was softened by the announcement of a $50bn share buyback, with the shares rebounding strongly."

In UK equity markets, Reckitt Benckiser surged to the top of the FTSE 100 after it upgraded its 2021 revenue outlook as the consumer goods company reported a 3.3% increase in like-for-like net revenue to £3.28bn in the third quarter. The maker of Finish dishwasher tablets and Durex condoms said it expected annual like-for-like net revenue to increase by 1-3% - up from earlier guidance of 0-2%.

Premier Inn owner Whitbread was also trading up after it narrowed interim losses as sales rebounded ahead of expectations, with room revenues potentially hitting full recovery "at some point" in 2022 despite "challenging" supply chain issues and labour shortages.

Elsewhere, B&M European Value Retail was boosted upgrade to ‘overweight’ from ‘neutral’ at JPMorgan.

Bunzl advanced as the distribution and services group said third-quarter revenues rose, driven by a strong recovery in its core business.

Essentra gained after saying it was considering selling its filters business as a first step to becoming a pure-play components business and that its results were on track to meet full-year expectations.

On the downside, IT infrastructure and services provider Softcat slumped despite reporting record full-year results amid strong public sector demand and a recovery in the corporate sector.

Cybersecurity firm Darktrace was also under the cosh again having tumbled on Monday on the back of a Peel Hunt initiation at ‘sell’.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,240.92 0.25%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,997.81 0.24%
techMARK (TASX) 4,576.77 0.34%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 5,740.00p 4.92%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,238.00p 2.63%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 629.00p 1.88%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,619.00p 1.28%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,478.50p 1.27%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 4,311.00p 1.15%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 1,076.50p 1.13%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 607.00p 1.07%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 376.40p 1.05%
Croda International (CRDA) 9,394.00p 1.01%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,470.00p -0.74%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,815.00p -0.66%
Informa (INF) 514.40p -0.66%
BAE Systems (BA.) 571.40p -0.45%
Kingfisher (KGF) 342.00p -0.44%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,768.60p -0.41%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,460.00p -0.40%
BP (BP.) 359.25p -0.39%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,782.40p -0.32%
BHP Group (BHP) 1,990.60p -0.27%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Renishaw (RSW) 5,235.00p 5.71%
PureTech Health (PRTC) 358.50p 5.13%
Essentra (ESNT) 284.50p 4.02%
SSP Group (SSPG) 254.80p 2.12%
Scottish American Inv Company (SAIN) 509.00p 2.11%
easyJet (EZJ) 606.20p 2.09%
Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust (USA) 335.00p 1.82%
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 341.80p 1.73%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 61.18p 1.49%
Trainline (TRN) 318.00p 1.47%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Darktrace (DARK) 705.00p -6.00%
Softcat (SCT) 1,920.00p -4.86%
BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 563.00p -1.75%
4Imprint Group (FOUR) 2,845.00p -1.39%
Contour Global (GLO) 195.80p -1.11%
Premier Foods (PFD) 111.80p -1.06%
888 Holdings (888) 382.60p -0.98%
TP Icap Group (TCAP) 157.48p -0.97%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 228.00p -0.83%
Vietnam Enterprise Investments (DI) (VEIL) 734.00p -0.81%