London open: Stocks edge lower as investors eye Brexit vote; Ocado surges
London stocks edged lower in early trade on Monday as investors eyed the upcoming Brexit vote in the House of Commons.
At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was off 0.2% at 6,795.55, while the pound was down 0.2% against the dollar at 1.3170 and 0.1% lower versus the euro at 1.1559.
With all the main European indices lower on Monday after Friday's rally ran out of steam, Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said: "Pause for breath or just lack of conviction in any rally? The major indices continue to make new highs from the December troughs so at present it does rather appear momentum is to the upside, albeit the FTSE 100 is a notable underperformer compared with peers.
"It’s of course a massive week for pound traders as the Brexit vote round two takes place on Tuesday. Expect some real volatility around the votes as we witnessed last time there will be lots of noise. But lower implied volatility in GBPUSD suggests a degree of complacency that is not fully pricing in all the risks."
In corporate news, Tesco was a little weaker following reports over the weekend that it could cut 15,000 jobs and close some of its fresh food and bakery counters.
Wood Group slipped even as it said it has reaped $54m in cash proceeds from selling off stakes in non-core joint ventures in the last couple of months.
On the upside, Ocado surged following a report over the weekend that it has held secret talks with Marks & Spencer over the launch of a food delivery service that could mark the end of its tie-up with Waitrose. M&S shares were also up.
Paragon Banking was on the front foot as the specialist lender posted a 40.6% jump in first-quarter total new lending and backed its full-year guidance.
Automotive fluid technology specialist TI Fluid Systems advanced after saying it expects group results for the past calendar year to be in line with its expectations.
In broker note action, Dixons Carphone rallied to the top of the FTSE 250 after an upgrade to ‘overweight’ at Morgan Stanley, while Halfords and Next were both upgraded to ‘equalweight’.
Vodafone was lifted to ‘buy’ at Kepler Cheuvreux, while National Express was upgraded to ‘buy’ at Liberum.
Gym Group was started at ‘neutral’ by Citi, Micro Focus was cut to ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs and On The Beach was initiated at ‘buy’ at Jefferies.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,795.55 -0.20%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,651.19 0.04%
techMARK (TASX) 3,329.08 0.05%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,003.50p 6.03%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,976.50p 2.54%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 297.20p 2.48%
Fresnillo (FRES) 965.60p 1.99%
BHP Group (BHP) 1,640.20p 1.91%
Evraz (EVR) 482.34p 1.91%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,532.00p 1.73%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,313.39p 1.62%
Next (NXT) 4,849.00p 1.51%
Glencore (GLEN) 301.30p 1.28%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,358.76p -1.39%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 527.20p -1.31%
NMC Health (NMC) 2,636.00p -1.13%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,395.00p -1.03%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 5,639.33p -1.03%
Barclays (BARC) 162.46p -1.00%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 233.00p -1.00%
BP (BP.) 502.10p -0.95%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 1,479.50p -0.90%
National Grid (NG.) 789.20p -0.90%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 150.95p 6.15%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 209.40p 4.44%
Vivo Energy (VVO) 129.80p 4.19%
Spectris (SXS) 2,585.00p 2.82%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 146.20p 2.24%
Playtech (PTEC) 391.90p 1.79%
SSP Group (SSPG) 673.30p 1.71%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 118.60p 1.50%
Hilton Food Group (HFG) 960.00p 1.48%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 490.00p 1.45%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 405.40p -2.31%
McCarthy & Stone (MCS) 134.37p -2.28%
IntegraFin Holding (IHP) 328.23p -2.07%
TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 1,444.00p -2.04%
Funding Circle Holdings (FCH) 332.91p -1.80%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 193.75p -1.62%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 184.95p -1.62%
Amigo Holdings (AMGO) 245.00p -1.61%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,452.00p -1.49%
Stagecoach Group (SGC) 154.48p -1.48%