London open: Stocks nudge up as oil prices slip back

London stocks nudged higher in early trade on Thursday as oil prices eased back and as investors digested the latest UK GDP reading.

At 0910 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 7,590.28.

Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said: "European stock markets are a bit higher again today as oil prices slide back. Crude slipped lower, with WTI taking a $100 handle for a time, as the White House indicated it would release as much as 180m barrels from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It would be the largest ever release, the third in six months, and amount to almost two days of global oil demand.

"This is large enough to make a dent, but releases never alter longer-term imbalances."

Later in the day, OPEC is expected to confirm sticking to 400,000 bpd monthly increases in output.

On the home front, data released earlier by the Office for National Statistics showed the economy grew at a faster pace than initially estimated in the fourth quarter of last year.

GDP rose by 1.3% compared to the previous quarter, up from an initial estimate of 1% growth and from revised 0.9% growth in the third quarter. That left the economy just 0.1% below where it was before the pandemic.

The largest contributors to the increase were human health and social work activities, driven by increased GP visits at the start of the quarter, and a large jump in Covid testing and tracing activities, as well as the extension of the vaccination programme.

Annual GDP growth was revised a touch for both 2020 and 2021. It is now estimated to have increased by 7.4% in 2021 versus 7.5% previously, following a revised 9.3% decline in 2020, versus 9.4% previously.

Meanwhile, consumer spending growth was revised down to 0.5% quarter-on-quarter from 1.2%.

Paul Dales, chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said the upward revision to GDP growth in Q4 may not be as encouraging as it looks as a lot of it appears to be due to inventories while consumer spending was revised down.

"The latter suggests the squeeze on real incomes is starting to bite, although the fall in the saving rate is providing a cushion," he said.

In equity markets, Halma was the top gainer on the FTSE 100 after an upgrade to ‘hold’ at HSBC.

Brewin Dolphin rocketed to the top of the FTSE 250 after the wealth manager agreed to be bought by Royal Bank of Canada in a £1.6bn deal.

Provident Financial rose after it reinstated its dividend as the subprime lender returned to profit after bad-debt provisions fell.

Trainline surged after it agreed to reduce the commission it receives for selling train tickets as part of a review by the rail industry.

On the downside, Vodafone was knocked lower by a downgrade to ‘underperform’ at Exane, while Taylor Wimpey, Phoenix Group, Moneysupermarket and ContourGlobal were all lower as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,590.28 0.15%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,428.58 0.73%
techMARK (TASX) 4,374.10 0.02%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Halma (HLMA) 2,561.00p 2.89%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 1,818.00p 2.65%
Ferguson (FERG) 10,610.00p 2.07%
Sage Group (SGE) 714.00p 2.06%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 12,705.00p 1.84%
Pearson (PSON) 752.60p 1.81%
3i Group (III) 1,405.50p 1.77%
Howden Joinery Group (HWDN) 788.20p 1.70%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,926.00p 1.63%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,612.00p 1.52%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Vodafone Group (VOD) 125.56p -2.98%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 131.65p -2.41%
Phoenix Group Holdings (PHNX) 621.20p -2.05%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 257.00p -1.65%
BP (BP.) 376.65p -1.59%
Next (NXT) 6,178.00p -1.53%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,709.50p -1.21%
Royal Mail (RMG) 341.90p -1.04%
Shell (SHEL) 2,091.50p -0.95%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,693.00p -0.79%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Brewin Dolphin Holdings (BRW) 511.00p 60.69%
Trainline (TRN) 237.00p 19.58%
Polymetal International (POLY) 346.90p 13.63%
Rathbone Group (RAT) 1,902.00p 7.82%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 3,058.00p 6.00%
TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 1,150.00p 3.98%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 742.20p 3.17%
AJ Bell (AJB) 303.00p 2.99%
Provident Financial (PFG) 325.20p 2.46%
Quilter (QLT) 142.65p 2.44%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 135.00p -5.59%
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 192.00p -3.66%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 52.06p -2.44%
Harbour Energy (HBR) 467.00p -2.38%
Contour Global (GLO) 190.00p -2.26%
Fidelity Emerging Markets Limited Ptg NPV (FEML) 669.00p -2.19%
Workspace Group (WKP) 684.00p -1.94%
Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited NPV (SONG) 120.00p -1.64%
Edinburgh Worldwide Inv Trust (EWI) 222.50p -1.55%
BMO Commercial Property Trust Limited (BCPT) 115.40p -1.20%