London open: Stocks gain; Euromoney surges on takeover talks
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Monday 20 Jun 2022
(Sharecast News) - London stocks rose in early trade on Monday, but sentiment remained fragile amid ongoing concerns about a global recession.
At 0930 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.5% at 7,049.36.
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "With the realisation the comfort blanket of cheap borrowing is being whipped away, investors are experiencing fresh chills at the start of the week. With no rally for beleaguered US indices on Friday, Japan's Nikkei and Australia's ASX 200 were around 0.7% lower. The FTSE 100 lifted slightly, but it's still a pretty lacklustre start to early trade. The index is hovering close to the psychologically important 7,000 mark, a level it has not seen since early March soon after the invasion of Ukraine.
"Investors sense there is trouble ahead for the world economy, given that the priority of the powerful US Federal Reserve is to stamp out the flames of inflation even if that means extinguishing growth. Although US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said yesterday a recession is not at all inevitable, she cautioned that the economy would slow, indicating that the price spiral will take time to reverse, given that inflation's causes were global."
In equity markets, Euromoney Institutional Investor surged after it confirmed it was in talks with a consortium comprising of private equity firms Astorg Asset Management and Epiris about a possible £1.6bn cash takeover. Responding to media speculation over the weekend, Euromoney said they were in discussions about a possible offer at £14.61 per share. This follows earlier approaches from the consortium at £11.75, £12.50, £13.10 and £13.50 per share.
AB Foods rallied after a well-received trading update, as it said Primark sales in the third quarter were 4% higher than the comparable pre-Covid period three years ago.
On the downside, miners were under the cosh amid worries about a global slowdown, with Rio Tinto, Anglo American, Antofagasta and Glencore all down.
Low-cost airline easyJet flew lower after saying it was "consolidating" flights this summer and facing higher-than-expected costs as a result of staff shortages across the industry that has led to travel chaos at most British airports. The company said it expects fourth-quarter capacity to be around 90% of pre-Covid pandemic levels.
Rank Group slid after it warned on full-year profits, citing the recent performance in Grosvenor venues and continued inflationary cost pressures across the group. For the year to 30 June, it now expects like-for-like underlying operating profit of around £40m, down from previous guidance of between £47m and £55m.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,049.36 0.47%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,993.70 0.36%
techMARK (TASX) 4,218.04 0.21%
FTSE 100 - Risers
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 116.20p 3.34%
BT Group (BT.A) 186.10p 3.27%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 711.20p 2.77%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 149.40p 2.61%
Entain (ENT) 1,303.00p 2.40%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 386.00p 2.33%
Next (NXT) 6,060.00p 2.09%
Croda International (CRDA) 6,034.00p 2.06%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 847.60p 2.00%
SSE (SSE) 1,618.00p 1.92%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,006.00p -3.30%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,285.50p -1.76%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 2,855.00p -1.74%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 7,012.00p -1.65%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,767.00p -1.56%
Fresnillo (FRES) 791.20p -1.32%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 3,469.00p -1.25%
Howden Joinery Group (HWDN) 599.80p -1.25%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 466.20p -1.21%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,826.00p -1.09%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,362.00p 24.50%
Carnival (CCL) 725.60p 7.53%
Moonpig Group (MOON) 220.40p 4.95%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 159.00p 4.13%
Drax Group (DRX) 626.50p 4.07%
Frasers Group (FRAS) 630.00p 3.96%
ITV (ITV) 67.74p 3.58%
Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 116.00p 3.57%
Royal Mail (RMG) 281.60p 3.53%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 533.20p 3.49%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Polymetal International (POLY) 201.00p -5.19%
Marshalls (MSLH) 450.00p -4.58%
Genuit Group (GEN) 396.00p -3.41%
Grafton Group Ut (CDI) (GFTU) 789.90p -3.35%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 444.20p -2.89%
easyJet (EZJ) 424.40p -2.88%
XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 3,070.00p -2.85%
Tyman (TYMN) 252.50p -2.51%
Ultra Electronics Holdings (ULE) 3,092.00p -2.46%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 148.50p -2.43%
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