London open: Stocks muted on last trading session before Christmas

It was more of a Santa crawl than a rally on Friday as London stocks ticked up just 0.1% in early trade on the last trading session before Christmas.

At 0840 GMT, the FTSE 100 stood at 7,381.53 in muted holiday trade.

Oanda analyst Jeffrey Halley said: "Markets continue to dismiss omicron because that’s what they want to believe, and the US data dump overnight had strong showings from the PCE index, durable goods and Michigan consumer sentiment.

"Assuming omicron is a storm in a test tube, and I certainly hope it is, there was nothing to deter the Fed overnight. The omicron-is-mild rally could well continue into January now, but reality will bite in February I believe, as the end of the Fed taper moves into sight."

Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t a whole lot happening on the corporate front.

Consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser nudged higher after agreeing to sell its E45 brand and related sub-brands to Sweden’s Karo Pharma for £200m.

Elsewhere, outsourcer Capita gained after saying it had sold its AMT Sybex software business to Jonas Computing for up to £40m.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,381.53 0.11%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,317.20 0.22%
techMARK (TASX) 4,558.84 0.23%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,218.00p 1.46%
Evraz (EVR) 609.20p 1.40%
Pearson (PSON) 605.00p 1.27%
Informa (INF) 516.20p 1.26%
Next (NXT) 8,000.00p 1.19%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,995.00p 1.08%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 213.00p 1.04%
Sage Group (SGE) 839.60p 1.03%
Smurfit Kappa Group (CDI) (SKG) 4,025.00p 1.03%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,855.00p 0.99%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Entain (ENT) 1,668.00p -0.68%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 15,690.00p -0.54%
Halma (HLMA) 3,149.00p -0.54%
Experian (EXPN) 3,581.00p -0.50%
Tesco (TSCO) 287.15p -0.42%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 6,020.00p -0.40%
BHP Group (BHP) 2,198.50p -0.36%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 439.00p -0.34%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,806.50p -0.28%
Diageo (DGE) 4,026.00p -0.27%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Helios Towers (HTWS) 168.00p 3.96%
FDM Group (Holdings) (FDM) 1,304.00p 3.33%
Harbour Energy (HBR) 362.60p 2.78%
SSP Group (SSPG) 247.80p 2.57%
Virgin Money UK (VMUK) 182.40p 2.56%
Close Brothers Group (CBG) 1,445.00p 2.56%
Kainos Group (KNOS) 1,890.00p 2.55%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 408.80p 2.17%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 131.90p 2.09%
QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 268.00p 1.98%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Paragon Banking Group (PAG) 547.50p -1.97%
Herald Investment Trust (HRI) 2,390.00p -1.65%
Ascential (ASCL) 405.40p -1.55%
FirstGroup (FGP) 102.90p -1.44%
C&C Group (CDI) (CCR) 229.80p -1.20%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 1,328.50p -1.19%
Inchcape (INCH) 881.00p -1.18%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 270.20p -1.17%
BB Healthcare Trust (Red) (BBH) 200.00p -0.99%
Mitie Group (MTO) 61.00p -0.97%