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London close: Stocks finish higher with Brexit, US jobs data in focus

By Josh White

Date: Friday 04 Oct 2019

London close: Stocks finish higher with Brexit, US jobs data in focus

(Sharecast News) - London stocks closed in the green on Friday, with gains picking up the pace in afternoon trading after the release of the latest US non-farm payrolls report.
The FTSE 100 ended the session up 1.1% at 7,155.38, while sterling weakened 0.18% against the dollar to $1.2310 and lost 0.28% on the euro to €1.1217.

US non-farm payrolls rose as expected for September, according to the data released during the afternoon, while the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in half a century.

According to the Department of Labor, hiring increased by 136,000 in September and non-farm payroll gains for the prior two months were revised higher by a combined 45,000.

Economists had forecast a reading of 140,000 for September.

Compared to a year ago, wage growth slipped from a year-on-year pace of 3.2% during the previous survey month to 2.9%, missing consensus estimates for a figure of 3.2%.

The rate of unemployment dropped from 3.7% in August to 3.5% in September, beating forecasts for 3.7%.

"This is as good as it's likely to get until the trade war is resolved," said Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

"Leading indicators, which warned clearly of the slowdown in job growth over the past few months, now point clearly to the trend slowing to just 50K or so by the end of the year."

He said he expected increases in average hourly earnings to resume, starting from the next month, as all leading indicators continued to point to a sustained uptrend, with upwards revisions to the September figures described as "a good bet too".

Earlier, AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould noted that the scale of this week's FTSE decline was "much worse" than any other major global stock market index.

"The storm clouds are gathering around the world judging by the latest economic data," he said.

"China, the eurozone, the US and the UK have all reported poor PMI data of late with particular weakness in manufacturing activity.

"One could easily deduce that we're heading towards a global recession - indeed, the UN last month warned that was a clear possibility in 2020."

Brexit remained very much in focus on Friday, after the European Union said it was "open but not convinced" by Prime Minister Boris Johnson's new proposals.

"It's widely believed that the latest proposals won't fly as a final solution, but it is no doubt encouraging that they have at least been received and not dismissed out of hand," said David Cheetham, chief market analyst at XTB.

"The latest reports suggest the PM has a week to revise the deal and it looks like Boris will now have to turn to plan B."

In equity markets, London Stock Exchange Group was up 2.99%, after Reuters reported that investors had told Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing that any bid must contain more cash and be up to 20% higher, to persuade them to engage.

Reuters cited three shareholders and a banking source.

BP was in the green by 2.06% as the oil giant said chief executive Bob Dudley would step down next February after nine years at the helm and be replaced by Bernard Looney, who heads up the upstream operations.

Aerospace parts maker Meggitt advanced 1.74% as it won a $48m US army contract to supply aerial weapons scoring systems.

AstraZeneca gained 0.84% after the US Food and Drug Administration approved its Fasenra respiratory treatment for self-administration.

JD Sports Fashion was boosted 2.7%, following an initiation at 'outperform' at Exane, but Marks & Spencer was knocked 3.94% lower by a downgrade to 'reduce' at HSBC.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,155.38 1.10%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,480.37 0.68%
techMARK (TASX) 3,824.78 1.21%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 496.20p 4.03%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,291.50p 3.40%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,408.00p 3.35%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 192.85p 3.10%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 335.00p 3.01%
Experian (EXPN) 2,532.00p 3.01%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 7,382.00p 2.99%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,718.00p 2.71%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 754.20p 2.70%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 2,144.00p 2.44%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

NMC Health (NMC) 2,501.00p -1.46%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,820.60p -1.05%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 149.60p -0.70%
Informa (INF) 797.00p -0.65%
Glencore (GLEN) 226.65p -0.57%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 915.80p -0.52%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,820.00p -0.46%
Aviva (AV.) 380.00p -0.42%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 638.60p -0.41%
Schroders (SDR) 2,885.00p -0.31%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Drax Group (DRX) 285.80p 13.86%
Charter Court Financial Services Group (CCFS) 295.00p 4.24%
Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 120.00p 3.99%
AJ Bell (AJB) 392.00p 3.43%
Dunelm Group (DNLM) 839.00p 3.07%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 186.30p 2.99%
Murray International Trust (MYI) 1,184.00p 2.96%
Games Workshop Group (GAW) 4,792.00p 2.79%
Future (FUTR) 1,240.00p 2.65%
Britvic (BVIC) 985.50p 2.60%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Homeserve (HSV) 1,120.00p -4.19%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 172.00p -3.86%
PayPoint (PAY) 875.00p -2.89%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 182.00p -2.67%
PPHE Hotel Group Ltd (PPH) 1,800.00p -2.17%
Rank Group (RNK) 190.80p -2.15%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 277.90p -1.87%
TP ICAP (TCAP) 320.90p -1.72%
Kainos Group (KNOS) 448.00p -1.54%
Bank of Georgia Group (BGEO) 1,285.50p -1.49%

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