London midday: Stocks rally after Thursday's selloff; IAG bucks the trend
London stocks were still firmly in the black by midday on Friday following heavy losses in the previous session on the back of worries about the Ukraine crisis, having taken their opening cue from an upbeat close on Wall Street.
The FTSE 100 was up 2.2% at 7,367.20, extending earlier gains, after tumbling 3.9% on Thursday.
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said: "Chiefly we can say that markets sold off aggressively early yesterday on fear - fear of sanctions rather than a fear for the future of Ukraine. The absence of any sanctions on Russia oil and gas, and decision to not exclude the country from the Swift payments network left the market breathing a sigh of relief as to the global economic impact the invasion might have. It’s sad to say the market does not care particularly about the plight of Ukrainians. We could also say that the market looked oversold and buy the dip still pervades.
"It’s hard to get a real handle on where we are right now - the market reaction reflects a wide range of potential outcomes, i.e. uncertainty over what happens on the ground as well as sanctions. Truth is most market participants are not experienced in what we face today: War + inflation...this is late 70s/early 80s type territory. Big question right now is whether central banks slam the brakes on their nascent hiking cycles. This could give some relief to tech/growth but could unleash further inflation pressures on the demand side, adding to the increasing cost-push supply side inflation we are encountering."
In equity markets, Russian steelmaker Evraz jumped to the top of the FTSE 100, having slid a day earlier amid worries about the impact of the Ukraine crisis. The company's full-year results, released earlier, showed that net profit rose to $3.1bn from $858m. Evraz also warned in the results that the "worsening situation related to Ukraine has further increased the economic uncertainty and the risk of the imposition of sanctions".
Educational publisher Pearson gained after saying it will launch a £350mi share buyback and that demand for assessment and qualification services allowed to hit its 2021 targets.
Rightmove rose after the online property portal posted a jump in full-year profit and sounded an upbeat note on the outlook.
Anglo-Russian precious metals miner Polymetal was in the black after heavy losses on Thursday.
Going the other way, IAG reversed earlier gains after the British Airways and Iberia owner said it expects to return to profit in the second quarter despite a "significant" operating loss in the first quarter due to the Omicron Covid variant, seasonal slowdown and capacity rebuilding costs.
The company, which also owns Aer Lingus and Iberia, narrowed 2021 losses to €2.7bn from €7.4bn and said it expected it would hit 85% of pre-pandemic 2019 capacity during the current year.
Precious metals miners Hochschild and Centamin lost their shine, having rallied a day earlier on surging gold prices.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,367.20 2.22%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,668.77 2.05%
techMARK (TASX) 4,295.78 1.80%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Evraz (EVR) 199.00p 16.20%
Pearson (PSON) 664.40p 10.73%
Polymetal International (POLY) 727.20p 6.57%
Rightmove (RMV) 652.40p 5.98%
SSE (SSE) 1,678.50p 5.97%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,925.50p 5.02%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 540.20p 4.93%
WPP (WPP) 1,085.00p 4.93%
National Grid (NG.) 1,104.00p 4.88%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 145.50p 4.75%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 10,130.00p -0.44%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 146.86p -0.37%
Avast (AVST) 621.40p -0.10%
Meggitt (MGGT) 746.00p 0.13%
Abrdn (ABDN) 203.10p 0.15%
Next (NXT) 6,772.00p 0.30%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,771.00p 0.37%
Glencore (GLEN) 424.25p 0.47%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,494.00p 0.49%
Unilever (ULVR) 3,653.00p 0.52%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Darktrace (DARK) 396.20p 10.98%
Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 167.00p 7.74%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 3,412.00p 6.96%
Centrica (CNA) 76.36p 5.82%
JPMorgan Japanese Inv Trust (JFJ) 514.00p 5.33%
Investec (INVP) 413.70p 5.13%
Drax Group (DRX) 656.50p 4.96%
Harbour Energy (HBR) 381.40p 4.95%
easyJet (EZJ) 626.60p 4.92%
Man Group (EMG) 187.20p 4.67%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 107.90p -6.74%
Capita (CPI) 26.63p -1.99%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 98.02p -1.88%
Capricorn Energy (CNE) 213.60p -1.66%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 182.15p -1.43%
Homeserve (HSV) 685.50p -1.37%
FDM Group (Holdings) (FDM) 842.00p -1.29%
Bridgepoint Group (Reg S) (BPT) 320.50p -1.23%
TP Icap Group (TCAP) 116.70p -1.10%
Energean (ENOG) 994.50p -1.04%