London open: Stocks little changed as investors eye Jackson Hole

London stocks were little changed in early trade on Wednesday as investors looked ahead to the Jackson Hole central banking symposium, taking place virtually this week.

At 0845 BST, the FTSE 100 was down 0.1% at 6,031.32.

Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: "Losing their way by the end of Tuesday, the European markets sighed their way through Wednesday’s open, seemingly at a loss about where to go next.

"Perhaps waiting for some central bank sign-posting from the Jackson Hole Symposium - which starts on Thursday - investors weren’t keen on anything after the bell.

"The FTSE - which at one point yesterday climbed towards 8180, only for an aggressive U-turn to leave it hovering above 6050 - slipped 0.2%, in part as a reaction to the pound shoring up its recent gains against the dollar and the euro."

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell is due to make a speech at the symposium.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "The market is eager for guidance on how the Fed might push inflation higher and what that means for monetary policy going forward.

"Powell may well say the Fed will keep its policy as accommodative as possible until inflation and employment has strengthened. Equities are unlikely to move too much until the speech is made, but afterwards we could see a sharp increase in trading activity on the markets as investors get a clearer picture of the Fed’s intentions."

In UK corporate news, Provident Financial surged after swinging to a loss in the first half as revenue fell and bad debts increased but the subprime lender said business had picked up in the second half.

Russian precious metals miner Polymetal was a little lower even as it reported sharply higher interim profits and doubled its dividend, driven by higher gold and silver prices.

In broker note action, WHSmith was boosted by an initiation at ‘buy’ at Goldman Sachs. Inchcape rallied after an upgrade to ‘overweight’ at JPMorgan Cazenove, while Signature Aviation was hit by a downgrade to ‘neutral’ by the same outfit.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,031.32 -0.09%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,612.52 0.20%
techMARK (TASX) 3,823.22 -0.15%

FTSE 100 - Risers

NATWEST GROUP PLC ORD 100P (NWG) 114.25p 2.15%
Barclays (BARC) 110.42p 1.17%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,788.00p 1.09%
BT Group (BT.A) 108.10p 1.08%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 393.60p 1.03%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 28.48p 0.99%
British Land Company (BLND) 362.00p 0.98%
Aveva Group (AVV) 4,690.00p 0.95%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 204.00p 0.89%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,227.00p 0.82%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,021.00p -1.56%
Relx plc (REL) 1,710.50p -1.30%
BAE Systems (BA.) 531.00p -1.15%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,980.00p -0.88%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 8,824.00p -0.85%
National Grid (NG.) 866.60p -0.78%
Pearson (PSON) 564.80p -0.77%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 10,435.00p -0.76%
Halma (HLMA) 2,222.00p -0.76%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 2,679.00p -0.74%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Provident Financial (PFG) 219.00p 11.91%
Inchcape (INCH) 506.00p 4.81%
WH Smith (SMWH) 1,080.00p 3.55%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 92.35p 3.53%
Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 331.00p 3.44%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 60.00p 2.56%
TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 166.76p 2.37%
William Hill (WMH) 163.90p 2.31%
Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 665.00p 2.31%
Carnival (CCL) 998.40p 2.17%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Signature Aviation (SIG) 259.90p -2.99%
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 800.00p -2.79%
Hill & Smith Holdings (HILS) 1,196.00p -1.97%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 55.00p -1.79%
HGCapital Trust (HGT) 269.50p -1.64%
Ultra Electronics Holdings (ULE) 2,344.00p -1.35%
Calisen (CLSN) 163.90p -1.32%
Gamesys Group (GYS) 1,136.00p -1.22%
Equiniti Group (EQN) 115.80p -1.19%
Trainline (TRN) 378.20p -0.99%