London open: Stocks rise on tech rally, Musk takeover of Twitter

London stocks were in the green on Tuesday morning, after Wall Street indices turned around a global sell-off overnight to close in positive territory.

At 0852 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 7,435.55, and the FTSE 250 was ahead 0.58% at 20,718.34.

“In the past few days and weeks, we have seen a serious sell-off for the global equity markets, and the reality is that the concerns which broke the back of the bull rally are still intact,” said AvaTrade chief market analyst Naeem Aslam.

“However, today, traders seem to be ignoring all those concerns.”

Aslam said the focus was on mega tech stocks and their earnings, and if any of them missed the estimates like Netflix, pessimism would likely take control of the price action.

“Nearly 160 S&P 500 companies will report their earnings this week, but the earnings results from Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Apple will set the tone for trading.”

Fears over the current Covid-19 situation in China continued to weigh on sentiment, but a rally in technology plays stateside helped to turn things around in New York.

Also in focus was the news that Twitter’s board would accept a $44bn offer from Elon Musk to take over the social network.

On the economic front, public borrowing was almost a fifth higher than forecast, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

UK public sector net borrowing totalled £151.8bn for the 2021-2022 financial year - comfortably topping the £127.8bn pencilled in by the Office for Budget Responsibility just last month.

The total for the year was more than £165bn less than in the prior financial period, when the government spent huge sums to support the economy during the worst of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

It was, however, still the third-highest figure since records began in 1947.

Borrowing was below expectations in March, however, coming in at £18.1bn, compared to the £19.25bn expected in a Reuters poll.

In equities, National Express was soaring after reporting that first-quarter group revenues were back to 2019 levels, with the group actually trading ahead of the same time two years earlier during March.

The coach operator said it delivered its seventh consecutive quarterly improvement, with revenue up 30% year-on-year in constant currency, driven by a "particularly strong recovery" in its UK and ALSA coach businesses, demonstrating strong pent-up demand for travel.

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey was also higher, after saying it was trading in line with full-year expectations and that it remained on track to deliver against guidance set out at the time of its 2021 annual results.

The housebuilder stated its net private sales rate for the year ended 17 April was "strong" at 0.96, down only slightly from 1.00 in the equivalent period a year earlier, with cancellation rates flat year-on-year at 14%.

On the downside, agribusiness-to-clothing group Associated British Foods was in the red after reporting soaring first-half profits, but warning of increasing prices at its Primark clothing business due to inflation.

AB Foods posted adjusted operating profit of £706m for the 24 weeks to March 5, up from £369m a year earlier. Group revenue for the six months rose 25% to £7.88bn.

HSBC was weaker after reporting a 28% fall in first-quarter profits due to higher-than-expected credit losses, the Ukraine war and a slowdown in China as it also warned on the outlook for share buybacks.

The bank posted pre-tax profits of $4.2bn for the three months to March, still better than expectations of $3.7bn, with revenue down 4% to $12.5bn.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,428.09 0.64%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,676.23 0.37%
techMARK (TASX) 4,358.05 0.26%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 132.45p 3.44%
Glencore (GLEN) 462.25p 2.87%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,306.00p 2.56%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 46.56p 2.56%
NATWEST GROUP PLC ORD 100P (NWG) 223.50p 2.43%
SSE (SSE) 1,860.50p 1.81%
Fresnillo (FRES) 760.80p 1.79%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 519.20p 1.76%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,666.00p 1.68%
British Land Company (BLND) 515.20p 1.66%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,591.50p -2.36%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 490.75p -2.16%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,020.00p -1.54%
Kingfisher (KGF) 252.10p -1.48%
Next (NXT) 6,046.00p -1.34%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 240.20p -1.31%
Halma (HLMA) 2,446.00p -1.25%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 491.10p -1.25%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 8,060.00p -1.23%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 138.75p -1.18%

FTSE 250 - Risers

National Express Group (NEX) 239.40p 6.40%
Hammerson (HMSO) 30.04p 3.66%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 170.20p 2.96%
BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 673.00p 2.75%
IMI (IMI) 1,316.00p 2.49%
Edinburgh Worldwide Inv Trust (EWI) 204.50p 2.35%
NB Private Equity Partners Ltd. (NBPE) 1,580.00p 2.27%
Worldwide Healthcare Trust (WWH) 3,265.00p 2.19%
Caledonia Investments (CLDN) 3,745.00p 1.90%
Henderson Smaller Companies Inv Trust (HSL) 975.00p 1.88%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

IWG (IWG) 241.10p -4.97%
Dr. Martens (DOCS) 216.00p -3.23%
Rank Group (RNK) 106.80p -2.73%
Bytes Technology Group (BYIT) 465.00p -2.52%
Abrdn Private Equity Opportunities Trust (APEO) 491.00p -2.19%
888 Holdings (888) 186.60p -2.05%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 149.90p -2.03%
Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 191.30p -1.80%
Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 147.00p -1.34%
Diploma (DPLM) 2,778.00p -1.28%