London open: BP paces the gains on solid results as investors eye services PMI

At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.4% to 7,061.45, while the pound was flat against the dollar at 1.3034 and 0.2% firmer versus the euro at 1.1416 as Theresa May was set to visit Northern Ireland and give a speech on Brexit policy.

Investors were digesting the latest BRC-KPMG retail sales monitor figures, which showed that UK retail sales picked up in January as shoppers were lured in by discounts following the worst December trading performance in a decade.

Like-for-like sales were up 1.8% last month compared to a 0.7% drop in December, comfortably beating expectations for a 0.2% decline. Meanwhile, total sales rose 2.2% in January compared to no growth the month before, marking the highest growth since June 2018.

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: "There was a welcome return to growth this month after December’s disappointing sales figures. But while retail discounts helped tempt cautious consumers, there is no guarantee this momentum will continue after the sales have finished. And it will not just be brick-and-mortar stores looking nervously to the future, as online sales continued to grow below the long term trend.

"Furthermore, the risk of a disruptive no deal Brexit could see these fortunes reversed. Unless the government want to see well-known brands disappearing from our high streets in 2019, they should work with their colleagues in parliament to find a solution that avoids the shock of a no-deal Brexit on 29 March and removes the risks to UK consumers."

Still to come, Markit's services PMI for January due at 0930 GMT is expected to show a dip to 51.0 from 51.2 in December.

In corporate news, oil giant BP was the standout gainer as it said profit in 2018 more than doubled to $12.7bn from $6.2bn the year before, beating consensus expectations of $11.9bn thanks to a strong performance across the business.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "Global oil majors are performing strongly at present, but these numbers from BP are superlative."

"Given the complexity of the operation, BP has the ongoing challenge of keeping the overall engine purring. This has been done with some aplomb, and any number of the metrics have benefited not only from a generally higher oil price over the year, but also a streamlining of operations which has resulted in higher efficiency. This in turn means that the company estimates that it can continue to be comfortable with oil around $50 per barrel, although it has also run the slide rule over lower levels by way of contingency planning."

Ocado fell as it said losses swelled last year but the online grocery specialist was able to focus on more significant developments overseas as its partners begin work on major new delivery warehouses. The company's pre-tax loss widened to £44.4m from £9.8m in 2017.

Indivior tanked more than 20% as the anti-opioid drugmaker warned it could lose 80% of market share "in a matter of months" to generic versions of its Suboxone drug, after a court defeat in its long-running effort to stop generic competitors entering the market.

In broker note action, Cobham was lifted to 'hold' at Kepler Cheuvreux, while Morrisons was upgraded to 'buy' at Berenberg and Petrofac was initiated at 'neutral' by MainFirst.

Greencore was resumed at 'buy' by Jefferies .

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,061.45 0.39%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,884.40 0.19%
techMARK (TASX) 3,401.54 0.24%

FTSE 100 - Risers

BP (BP.) 537.90p 3.42%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 901.60p 2.25%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,715.00p 1.29%
Glencore (GLEN) 305.25p 1.16%
Evraz (EVR) 517.00p 1.13%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,439.00p 1.08%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,311.00p 1.03%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,977.80p 0.91%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,453.00p 0.90%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 1,505.50p 0.87%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Ocado Group (OCDO) 969.20p -2.36%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 890.00p -0.89%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,657.00p -0.81%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 4,588.00p -0.80%
Prudential (PRU) 1,503.00p -0.73%
Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 254.15p -0.72%
SEGRO (SGRO) 642.40p -0.71%
Experian (EXPN) 1,956.25p -0.67%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,623.00p -0.64%
ITV (ITV) 130.45p -0.57%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Metro Bank (MTRO) 1,328.00p 4.32%
Greencore Group (GNC) 196.40p 2.83%
CYBG (CYBG) 178.60p 2.70%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 247.80p 2.69%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 618.40p 2.38%
Computacenter (CCC) 1,076.00p 1.89%
Cobham (COB) 110.80p 1.79%
IP Group (IPO) 109.00p 1.68%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 153.20p 1.59%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 559.40p 1.52%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Indivior (INDV) 90.18p -20.30%
IntegraFin Holding (IHP) 337.05p -1.61%
Intu Properties (INTU) 118.70p -1.17%
Hunting (HTG) 561.00p -1.15%
FirstGroup (FGP) 94.60p -0.99%
Superdry (SDRY) 500.00p -0.70%
Royal Mail (RMG) 279.60p -0.67%
Homeserve (HSV) 958.00p -0.62%
Workspace Group (WKP) 945.50p -0.58%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 951.00p -0.58%