London open: Stocks rise amid stimulus hopes
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Monday 19 Aug 2019
(Sharecast News) - London stocks rose in early trade on Monday, taking their cue from a positive session in Asia amid hopes of more stimulus from central banks.
At 0830 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 1% at 7,189.51, while the pound was down 0.1% against the dollar at 1.2134 and 0.2% lower versus the euro at 1.0933.
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said: "China unveiled interest rate reforms to ease credit conditions. Just the start of concerted easing efforts one feels. There is even talk of Germany launching fiscal stimulus (shock, horror) if there is a recession. Finance minister Olaf Scholz said Germany could find $55bn behind the back of the sofa if it had to.
"On that front we are looking to Jackson Hole this week for clues about central bank group think. Whilst policy statements are rare and papers are usually pretty arcane, we'd expect a lot of talk on the side lines. In particular, look for how Fed speakers guide for either a 25 basis points or 50bps cut in September.
"Similarly, where does the ECB stand on its September meeting - does it conform to Rehn's call for massive stimulus measures? Jackson Hole comes at a key moment for the world economy and global central banks."
On the trade front, a Reuters report on Friday suggested that the US Commerce Department may soon renew the temporary general license granted to China's Huawei by 90 days. However, US President Trump said on Sunday that he does not want to do business with Huawei.
"Huawei is a company we may not do business with at all," Trump told reporters.
"We're looking really not to do business with Huawei...it's very difficult to determine what's coming in, what's not coming in, it's still Huawei."
On home shores, the latest data from property website Rightmove showed that house sales in August were boosted by a pre-Brexit buying spree.
House sales rose 6.1% on the year this month, marking the highest number of sales agreed at this time of year since the same period in 2015 and helping to make up for the slower start to the year.
Increases were seen in all regions, with the North East, East of England and Yorkshire & the Humber leading the way with rises of more than 10%.
Rightmove director Miles Shipside said: "Surprisingly there seems to be a bit of a summer buying spree, despite it normally being a quieter time of year. For some reason more buyers have cottoned on to the fact that it can be a good time of year to buy, with less competition from other buyers, and sellers typically more willing to accept a lower price.
"Whilst another approaching Brexit deadline is now nothing new for prospective buyers, this one may seem more definite, and therefore one to beat, with the Government regarding this one as 'do or die'. While the end of October Brexit outcome remains uncertain, more buyers are now going for the certainty of doing a deal, with some having perhaps hesitated earlier in the year."
Asking prices on Rightmove were down 1% compared to July, which it said was a better performance than usual for August, pushing the annual rate of increase to 1.2%.
In equity markets, miners Antofagasta and Glencore were on the rise amid higher copper prices.
Elsewhere, Georgia's TBC Bank rallied after saying it was buying a 65% stake in domestic e-commerce company My-ge for GEL 19.45m (£5.47m) in cash, valuing the company at £29.93m.
Safestore gained as it said it was forming a joint venture with Carlyle European Real Estate Fund, to acquire M3 Self Storage, which operates six prime storage locations in Amsterdam and Haarlem in the Netherlands.
Medical products and technology company ConvaTec nudged up as it appointed former Rentokil chairman Dr John McAdam as chairman with effect from 30 September 2019.
LondonMetric Property ticked lower as it agreed to purchase and fund a new 232,000 square foot distribution warehouse for £24m.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,189.51 1.02%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,933.54 0.59%
techMARK (TASX) 3,821.70 0.70%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Antofagasta (ANTO) 812.80p 2.73%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 432.10p 2.44%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 321.31p 2.39%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,942.00p 2.32%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 764.00p 2.30%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 167.50p 2.17%
Glencore (GLEN) 229.25p 2.16%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,175.50p 2.13%
Evraz (EVR) 505.80p 1.98%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 529.48p 1.92%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Fresnillo (FRES) 657.80p -0.87%
Centrica (CNA) 65.13p -0.47%
SSE (SSE) 1,104.00p -0.27%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,003.00p -0.20%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 180.90p -0.08%
Whitbread (WTB) 4,095.00p -0.05%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 6,172.00p 0.03%
National Grid (NG.) 858.00p 0.03%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,899.50p 0.11%
Pearson (PSON) 815.80p 0.17%
FTSE 250 - Risers
CYBG (CYBG) 148.45p 4.80%
Premier Oil (PMO) 69.82p 4.08%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 449.50p 3.81%
Hunting (HTG) 443.00p 3.41%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 209.11p 3.26%
Metro Bank (MTRO) 283.80p 3.20%
PayPoint (PAY) 928.88p 3.09%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 160.30p 2.89%
Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 723.60p 2.55%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,309.50p 2.55%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) 42.50p -3.74%
Riverstone Energy Limited (RSE) 630.00p -2.33%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 5,410.00p -1.81%
PureTech Health (PRTC) 282.00p -1.40%
Card Factory (CARD) 152.10p -1.23%
Funding Circle Holdings (FCH) 115.66p -1.14%
Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 101.48p -1.09%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 207.55p -1.07%
Hill & Smith Holdings (HILS) 1,120.00p -1.06%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 137.35p -0.97%
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