London open: Stocks steady as investors eye US earnings

London stocks were steady in early trade on Tuesday amid worries about rate hikes and as investors eyed key US earnings later in the session.

At 0900 BST, the FTSE 100 was flat at 7,206.67.

Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said: "European stocks are flat in early trade as risk remains on watch for a range of factors, including earnings, inflation and expectations central banks will tighten the screw.

"Also worrying markets are central banks - the Bank of England has put the cat among the pigeons with its hawkish talk, nudging markets to price in some hikes in the next year that just weren’t expected a few weeks ago."

Wilson also pointed there are "some big names reporting earnings today, including Netflix, United Airlines, and Tesla".

In UK equity markets, British Airways and Iberia parent IAG was the worst performer on the FTSE 100 after a downgrade to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ at Berenberg.

Gambling firm 888 was on the back foot as it said it will take a $10m hit to profits after its Dutch business stopped operations from the start of October because of changes to gaming rules.

On the upside, Hikma was the biggest gainer on the top-flight index after an upgrade to ‘overweight’ at Morgan Stanley, while education publisher Pearson rose after an upgrade to ‘hold’ from ‘sell’ at Berenberg.

Bellway gained ground after the housebuilder increased its final dividend by almost two-thirds as it reported a 72% increase in annual profit and a solid order book.

Online price comparison platform Moneysupermarket.com rallied after saying it was buying consumer cashback website Quidco for up to £101m.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,206.67 0.04%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,069.92 0.44%
techMARK (TASX) 4,535.33 -0.11%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,416.00p 2.90%
Evraz (EVR) 646.60p 2.70%
Fresnillo (FRES) 885.00p 2.55%
Pearson (PSON) 630.80p 2.54%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,372.50p 2.16%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 158.10p 1.74%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,531.50p 1.52%
Next (NXT) 8,040.00p 1.41%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,066.00p 1.28%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 2,115.00p 1.15%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 170.30p -3.08%
Schroders (SDR) 3,538.00p -1.06%
Entain (ENT) 2,107.00p -0.80%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 141.62p -0.72%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,413.00p -0.70%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 14,285.00p -0.66%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 274.50p -0.65%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 8,645.00p -0.62%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,802.50p -0.61%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 5,470.00p -0.55%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 215.40p 6.11%
RHI Magnesita N.V. (DI) (RHIM) 3,102.00p 5.01%
Network International Holdings (NETW) 356.10p 4.86%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 149.60p 4.76%
AO World (AO.) 153.30p 3.44%
Bellway (BWY) 3,455.00p 3.07%
Darktrace (DARK) 901.00p 2.97%
Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 115.40p 2.67%
Chrysalis Investments Limited NPV (CHRY) 240.00p 2.13%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 229.70p 2.09%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

IP Group (IPO) 124.60p -2.81%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 251.80p -2.40%
Softcat (SCT) 2,064.00p -1.43%
Trustpilot Group (TRST) 377.80p -1.10%
Virgin Money UK (VMUK) 200.90p -1.08%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 4,475.00p -0.97%
easyJet (EZJ) 621.20p -0.93%
SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust (SEIT) 114.00p -0.87%
Pantheon International (PIN) 2,990.00p -0.83%
Cranswick (CWK) 3,518.00p -0.79%