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London open: FTSE nudges up as miners, energy shares gain
London stocks nudged higher in early trade on Wednesday, outperforming their European peers thanks to a solid showing in the mining and energy sectors.
At 0855 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 7,550.95, having gained on Tuesday after Russia said it was scaling back military operations around Kyiv and Chernihiv.
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said: “We await to see what really happens on the ground. Western intelligence is sceptical and could be repositioning of units during a natural lull, caused by stiff defence…making a virtue out of a necessity.
“After a strong run over the last two sessions, European equities are softer in early trading this morning. Losses are under 1% at the open, after the CAC rose 3% and the DAX advanced 2.8% on Tuesday. The FTSE tried to stay flat with and oil & gas, basic resources the top sectors in European trade.”
In equity markets, miners rose as metals prices pushed higher, with Anglo American, Glencore and Rio Tinto all up.
Oil giants Shell and BP also gushed higher amid firmer oil prices.
Elsewhere, gold miner Polymetal surged to the top of the FTSE 250 as it maintained full-year production guidance and said operations in Russia and Kazakhstan continue undisrupted.
Russia-focussed gold producer Petropavlovsk was also up after saying it was in the early stages of discussions with advisers and Gazprombank relating to a potential restructuring of the group’s debt.
On the downside, credit-checking firm Experian was under the cosh after a downgrade to ‘neutral’ at Citi, while Lloyds fell after a downgrade to ‘underperform’ at RBC Capital Markets
Top 10 FTSE 100 Risers
| # | Name | Change Pct | Change | Cur Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Anglo American Plc | +3.13% | +119.00 | 3,920.00 |
| 2 |  |
Shell Plc | +3.07% | +62.00 | 2,084.00 |
| 3 |  |
Rio Tinto Plc | +2.57% | +150.00 | 5,995.00 |
| 4 |  |
Glencore Plc | +2.53% | +12.15 | 492.80 |
| 5 |  |
Bhp Group Limited | +1.91% | +54.50 | 2,912.50 |
| 6 |  |
Bp Plc | +1.90% | +7.05 | 378.40 |
| 7 |  |
Fresnillo Plc | +1.26% | +9.00 | 724.20 |
| 8 |  |
British American Tobacco Plc | +0.75% | +24.00 | 3,243.00 |
| 9 |  |
Vodafone Group Plc | +0.74% | +0.94 | 127.50 |
| 10 |  |
Bae Systems Plc | +0.70% | +5.00 | 718.00 |
Top 10 FTSE 100 Fallers
| # | Name | Change Pct | Change | Cur Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Experian Plc | -2.64% | -81.00 | 2,987.00 |
| 2 |  |
Kingfisher Plc | -2.33% | -6.40 | 268.20 |
| 3 |  |
Lloyds Banking Group Plc | -2.29% | -1.15 | 48.86 |
| 4 |  |
Carnival Plc | -2.22% | -30.40 | 1,341.80 |
| 5 |  |
St. James’s Place Plc | -2.17% | -33.00 | 1,484.50 |
| 6 |  |
Flutter Entertainment Plc | -2.07% | -190.00 | 8,986.00 |
| 7 |  |
Rightmove Plc | -2.06% | -13.60 | 645.60 |
| 8 |  |
Hargreaves Lansdown Plc | -2.03% | -21.50 | 1,037.50 |
| 9 |  |
Easyjet Plc | -2.00% | -11.40 | 558.40 |
| 10 |  |
Berkeley Group Holdings (the) Plc | -1.97% | -77.00 | 3,822.00 |
Europe open: Shares edge lower as Polymetal shines on guidance update
European shares fell at the open on Wednesday as investors paused for breath after gains earlier in the week to monitor Russia-Ukraine peace talks.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.54% in early deals with only London’s FTSE 100 bucking the trend as the energy-heavy index showed gains for majors such as BP, Shell, Glencore, Anglo American and BHP all up.
“Oil is attempting to stage a rebound amid the prospect of fresh Western sanctions against Russia, potentially further tightening an already fragile outlook for supply,” said Victoria Scholar, head of investments at Interactive investor.
“With price action swinging between gains and losses this week, the market is attempting to weigh up the seriousness of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine alongside China’s policy response to its latest Covid-19 outbreak against the possibility of fresh Russian sanctions, Kazakhstan’s pipeline outage, falling US crude stockpiles and OPEC+’s expected plans to only modestly up supply at its meeting this week.”
Russia claimed it was scaling back operations about Kyiv in an apparent offering to make progress on peace talks. However, Ukraine officials were sceptical of Moscow’s motives.
In other equity news, shares in pharms giant Roche fell after it said its drug to treat small cell lung cancer failed to meet its targets in a late-stage trial.
Ericsson shares fell 0.6% after investors publicly rebuked Chief Executive Borje Ekholm and the telecom equipment maker’s board over a scandal involving potential payments to Islamic State.
Polymetal shares soared again, up 18% as the Russia-focused gold miner maintained production guidance and said it had not been affected by santions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
US close: Stocks higher on signs of progress in Russia-Ukraine talks
Wall Street stocks closed higher on Tuesday following the release of some key economic data and word of some potential progress in talks between Russia and Ukraine.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.97% at 35,924.19, while the S&P 500 was 1.23% firmer at 4,631.60 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.84% stronger at 14,619.64.
The Dow closed 338.30 points higher on Tuesday, extending gains recorded in the previous session.
The latest developments in the Ukraine-Russia war were in focus on Tuesday, with Russia reportedly planning to “dramatically” scale back military operations near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
The announcement, which included a pledge to reduce military activity around the city of Chernihiv as well, came as peace talks between Russia and Ukraine concluded in Istanbul.
Alexander Fomin, Russia’s deputy minister of defence, said that to “increase mutual trust, and create the necessary conditions for future negotiations to agree and sign a peace deal with Ukraine,” Moscow would “dramatically reduce military activities in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv, several times over”, the first major concession Moscow has made since it invaded at the end of February, according to Russian news agency Tass.
Also drawing an amount of investor attention were declines in energy prices recorded both today and yesterday, with Brent crude and West Texas intermediate extending Monday’s losses with a 0.84% and 1.26% drop per barrel on Tuesday after Shanghai’s recent lockdown, combined with a rising number of Covid cases in China, boosted concerns around Chinese oil demand.
In terms of the session’s all-important macro points, the Conference Board‘s consumer confidence index bounced back slightly in March to stand at 107.2, up from 105.7 in March, but the expectations index, based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labour market conditions, declined to 76.6 from 80.8 as consumers cited rising prices, especially at the gas pump, and the war in Ukraine as factors.
On another note, the Bureau of Labor Statistics‘ JOLTS report revealed the number of job openings in the United States was 11.26m in February 2022, little changed from an upwardly revised 11.28m print in January and broadly in line with market expectations of 11.0m.
Elsewhere, the Federal Housing Finance Agency revealed that its housing index increased to 373.35 points in January, up from 367.64 points in December 2021.
