London open: Stocks rise but BP slumps on Q4 results

London stocks edged higher in early trade on Tuesday, although oil giant BP was under the cosh after its fourth-quarter results.

At 0900 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.5% at 6,497.01.

Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: "With silver continuing to retreat from yesterday’s 8-year highs, and as yet no new contender for the latest Reddit darling, the markets felt calmer, pushing ahead with their attempt to reclaim January’s heavy losses.

"It does seems that investors have very quickly set aside the fears that tanked January’s gains during the final sessions of the month. This despite a lack of material change in three of the key areas - Covid-19, the progress of the US stimulus package, Reddit-led volatility - that caused such conniptions last week. That’s a potential danger as the month progresses, though a swift and decisive move on the covid-19 relief bill would keep any other fears at bay."

In corporate news, sales, marketing and support services company DCC rallied after it said third-quarter group operating profit was "strongly ahead" of the prior year.

Virgin Money was also in the black after saying it has aside another £726m in bad loan provisions in the first quarter to deal with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The lender said it had granted mortgage payment holidays on £12.1bn of loans at December 31, equivalent to around 21% of balances, compared with £11.9bn at its fiscal full-year.

Travel and leisure stocks gained, with Premier Inn owner Whitbread, InterContinental Hotels and cruise operator Carnival all higher.

On the downside, BP slid after fourth-quarter profits at the oil company fell to a worse-than-expected $115m as the coronavirus epidemic battered energy demand. The company reported a full-year loss of $5.7bn after writing down the value of oil and gas assets by $6.5bn in response to lower long-term energy prices forecasts.

Precious metals miners Fresnillo and Hochschild also lost their shine, having surged on Monday in tandem with silver prices.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,497.01 0.47%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,468.80 0.37%
techMARK (TASX) 4,108.19 0.71%

FTSE 100 - Risers

DCC (DCC) 5,872.00p 2.77%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,925.00p 2.63%
Diageo (DGE) 3,010.50p 2.31%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 4,710.00p 2.24%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 96.10p 2.13%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 174.75p 2.07%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 3,840.00p 1.96%
Prudential (PRU) 1,197.00p 1.92%
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 2,450.00p 1.87%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,303.00p 1.80%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

BP (BP.) 257.65p -3.54%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,038.50p -3.49%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 8,248.00p -1.97%
Pearson (PSON) 752.60p -1.90%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,640.00p -1.32%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,461.00p -1.22%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 791.00p -1.08%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 6,244.00p -0.83%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 617.00p -0.64%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 178.85p -0.56%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Virgin Money UK (VMUK) 138.40p 4.93%
Carnival (CCL) 1,204.50p 2.86%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 2,162.00p 2.81%
Royal Mail (RMG) 417.30p 2.71%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 438.00p 2.46%
Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) 303.00p 2.36%
Meggitt (MGGT) 413.60p 2.10%
Network International Holdings (NETW) 350.00p 1.98%
Edinburgh Worldwide Inv Trust (EWI) 390.50p 1.96%
Schroder Asia Pacific Fund (SDP) 648.00p 1.89%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Hochschild Mining (HOC) 227.80p -10.31%
PureTech Health (PRTC) 378.00p -3.08%
ITV (ITV) 106.60p -2.65%
Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 132.80p -2.21%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 8,248.00p -1.97%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 28.70p -1.88%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 76.04p -1.86%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 80.90p -1.70%
TP ICAP (TCAP) 198.20p -1.60%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 115.35p -1.33%