London open: Stocks nudge up but BAT tumbles after update

London stocks nudged higher in early trade on Wednesday as investors eyed the latest ADP jobs report in the US, but British American Tobacco tumbled after a disappointing update.

At 0825 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.1% at 7,497.19.

The ADP report for November is due at 1315 GMT. Before that, the S&P Global/CIPS UK construction PMI for November is at 0930 GMT.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Today we get a look at the latest ADP payrolls report for November as an appetiser for Friday’s non-farm payrolls report. We are starting see increasing evidence that the US jobs market is starting to slow, with vacancies falling to their lowest level since March 2021 and with the last two ADP reports adding a combined 202k new jobs as private sector hiring slows.

"October saw 113k jobs added an improvement on September and November is expected to see an improvement on that to 130k, given that a lot of additional hiring takes place in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and the Christmas period so we’re unlikely to see any evidence of cracking in the US labour market this side of 2024."

In equity markets, miners were among the top performers on the FTSE 100 as copper prices rose, with Anglo American, Rio Tinto, Glencore and Antofagasta all up.

Ocado jumped to the top of the index after an upgrade to ‘neutral’ from ‘underweight’ at JPMorgan.

Weir Group gained after saying it is now targeting £60m in absolute savings by 2026, as part of its goal to reach an operating margin of 20% by the same year. It also confirmed that market conditions and its 2023 guidance remained unchanged, with the company on track to deliver an operating margin of 17%.

Travel giant Tui rallied as it said it expects a 25% rise in operating profit this year after 2023 earnings surged by more than double on the back of strong demand. It also announced a potential move of its stock market listing from London to Frankfurt.

On the downside, tobacco and nicotine giant British American Tobacco was under the cosh as it scaled back expectations for organic growth this year. The company said macroeconomic pressures in the US were impacting its combustibles performance and organic revenues are now expected to grow at the low end of the 3-5% guidance range at constant exchange rates.

BAT said it will take a non-cash adjusting impairment charge of around £25bn relating to some of its US combustibles brands.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,497.19 0.10%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,523.37 0.19%
techMARK (TASX) 4,085.20 0.23%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Ocado Group (OCDO) 616.80p 3.14%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,918.50p 2.90%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,214.00p 2.74%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,526.00p 1.96%
Glencore (GLEN) 446.15p 1.77%
Beazley (BEZ) 554.00p 1.74%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,817.00p 1.73%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,441.50p 1.69%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,809.00p 1.34%
M&G (MNG) 209.80p 1.21%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,338.50p -5.99%
Diageo (DGE) 2,779.50p -1.17%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 532.40p -0.71%
BP (BP.) 469.15p -0.58%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 9,210.00p -0.56%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 523.20p -0.53%
WPP (WPP) 714.80p -0.53%
Entain (ENT) 791.00p -0.48%
Unilever (ULVR) 3,785.50p -0.43%
BAE Systems (BA.) 1,040.00p -0.43%

FTSE 250 - Risers

TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 545.50p 6.54%
Dr. Martens (DOCS) 100.30p 4.86%
Redde Northgate (REDD) 376.00p 4.59%
Discoverie Group (DSCV) 730.00p 3.84%
Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 215.00p 3.61%
AJ Bell (AJB) 269.00p 2.67%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 74.15p 2.49%
Ibstock (IBST) 135.20p 2.42%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 234.00p 2.36%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 150.20p 2.32%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Ceres Power Holdings (CWR) 172.20p -4.60%
Premier Foods (PFD) 127.00p -2.76%
Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 1,305.40p -2.47%
Keller Group (KLR) 800.00p -2.44%
Marshalls (MSLH) 242.60p -2.26%
Shaftesbury Capital (SHC) 120.50p -2.03%
Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 82.55p -2.02%
Trainline (TRN) 285.20p -1.93%
Primary Health Properties (PHP) 97.45p -1.86%
Balanced Commercial Property Trust Limited (BCPT) 68.50p -1.86%