London open: WPP and Ashtead pace the advance as stocks recover

At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was 0.6% higher at 6,759.68. The pound was up 0.2% against the dollar at 1.2585 and 0.1% firmer versus the euro at 1.1068, steadying after Theresa May's decision to call off this week's parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal sent the currency crashing to its lowest level in almost two years.

The Prime Minister kicked off her tour of Europe early on Tuesday, heading to The Hague for talks with Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte before making her way to Berlin for crunch talks with Germany's Angela Merkel. May will also hold talks later in the day with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk ahead of Thursday's EU council summit as she seeks further assurances on the Brexit backstop.

Kallum Pickering, senior economist at Berenberg, said that while the parliamentary vote delay adds to near-term uncertainty, it could be a step on the way to an ultimately softer Brexit outcome.

He expects EU leaders at the summit this week to repeat the message that renegotiation of the Irish backstop is not possible.

"Without major changes to the backstop, the odds are stacked against May if and when she brings her deal back to parliament," said Pickering. "Once May’s has a clear answer later this week from the EU, she will be under pressure to bring the deal back to the house as soon as possible. We therefore still see a good chance that parliament will debate and vote on the deal at some point next week before it rises for Christmas on the 20th December."

On the data front, the Office for National Statistics will publish the UK unemployment rate, average earnings and the claimant count at 0930 GMT.

In corporate news, WPP was the standout gainer as new boss Mark Read said he will spend £300m over the next three years to restructure the marketing and advertising giant with the aim of achieving an operating profit margin of at least 15%.

Having so far sold off 16 non-core investments and associates, to raise £704m to reduce debt, he said preparations were well underway to divest a majority stake of its Kantar research business by the second quarter of next year.

Equipment rental company Ashtead also racked up strong gains as it said it expects full-year results to beat expectations after interim pre-tax profit rose 45% to £461m.

Outsourcing company Serco gained after saying it has signed contract extensions with Peterborough City Council and Lincolnshire County Council worth a combined £135m.

Online gaming provider 888 Holdings advanced as it bought the remaining 53% interest in the All American Poker Network for $28m.

On the downside, high-interest lender Amigo Holdings fell as it appointed Nayan Kisnadwala - formerly chief financial officer of Premium Credit Limited and Barclaycard - as its new CFO, succeeding Simon Dighton, who will step down by the end of the year.

Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons were all in the red as fresh data from Kantar Worldpanel showed the past 12 weeks had seen slowest growth rate since March 2017. Grocery sales have softened to 2.0% from 2.6%, 3.2% and 3.8% in the past three updates, as Kantar's measure of inflation has more than halved over the past year.

"Over the summer shoppers upped their weekly trips to the grocers as they took advantage of the hot weather, but with the mercury dropping the number of trips has tailed off – again contributing to waning market growth,” said Fraser McKevitt, Kantar Worldpanel's head of retail and consumer insight.

Standard Life was the biggest loser on the FTSE 100 after a downgrade to 'sector perform' at RBC Capital Markets, while Superdry suffered the heaviest losses among the mid-caps as Berenberg cut its stance on the fashion brand to 'hold' and Liberum slashed its price target to 700p from 900p.

In other broker note action, Aviva was lifted to 'top pick' at RBC, while Lancashire was upgraded to 'outperform'.

Derwent London was cut to 'equal-weight' at Barclays while Workspace was started at 'overweight'.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,759.68 0.57%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,532.62 0.23%
techMARK (TASX) 3,340.67 0.58%

FTSE 100 - Risers

WPP (WPP) 860.60p 6.91%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,699.00p 5.76%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 4,665.00p 2.37%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 6,340.00p 2.32%
NMC Health (NMC) 3,200.00p 1.98%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 753.60p 1.84%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 148.95p 1.81%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,328.00p 1.79%
BHP Group (BHP) 1,554.80p 1.73%
Evraz (EVR) 473.50p 1.50%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 222.10p -3.10%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 52.02p -1.64%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 219.90p -1.61%
Royal Mail (RMG) 292.20p -1.55%
Tesco (TSCO) 194.00p -1.27%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 273.60p -1.27%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,932.00p -1.21%
Centrica (CNA) 131.35p -1.20%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 201.20p -1.18%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,046.00p -1.00%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Indivior (INDV) 80.08p 4.63%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,366.00p 2.28%
Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 610.00p 2.26%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 334.90p 2.17%
UDG Healthcare Public Limited Company (UDG) 614.50p 2.16%
EI Group (EIG) 174.80p 1.98%
IMI (IMI) 887.00p 1.95%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 537.60p 1.93%
TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 1,406.00p 1.74%
JPMorgan Indian Investment Trust (JII) 644.00p 1.58%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Superdry (SDRY) 570.00p -7.84%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 25.24p -5.05%
Metro Bank (MTRO) 1,858.00p -1.64%
Spectris (SXS) 2,335.00p -1.60%
Pennon Group (PNN) 686.60p -1.52%
FDM Group (Holdings) (FDM) 743.00p -1.46%
IP Group (IPO) 104.60p -1.32%
TP ICAP (TCAP) 292.00p -1.25%
William Hill (WMH) 150.15p -1.25%
Avast (AVST) 261.05p -1.23%