FTSE 100 Live 09 September: Entain surges in stronger blue-chip index, oil price higher
FTSE 100 Live Monday
Lloyds and Barratt in housing JV
Entain online recovery boosts shares
No cider summer for C&C
Barratt and Lloyds join forces in bid to tackle housing shortage
09:53 , Graeme Evans
A new venture with the aim of ramping up housing supply was today launched by Barratt Developments, Lloyds Banking Group and Homes England.
The MADE Partnership will act as master developer for multiple large scale, residential-led developments from 1,000 to more than 10,000 homes along with a variety of community facilities and employment uses.
Potential development opportunities will include large brownfield developments, as well as new garden village style communities.
The long-term partnership is initially backed by combined funding of up to £150 million, provided equally by the partners.
Lloyds chief executive Charlie Nunn said the initiative aims to deliver tens of thousands of urgently required new homes: “This is the cross-sector collaboration we need, at significant ambition and scale."
Oil stocks higher on Brent Crude recovery, Burberry under pressure
09:28 , Graeme Evans
Burberry shares are down 4% or 22.7p to 581.7p after analysts at Barclays downgraded their stance on the luxury goods group to Underweight.
They also slashed their price target from 820p to 540p, adding to pressure on the stock ahead of its relegation from the FTSE 100 later this month.
On the risers board, oil majors BP and Shell benefited from an upturn in the Brent Crude price to just above $72 a barrel.
The benchmark reversed 8% last week but is up this morning, partly due to supply fears caused by the approach of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP shares are at a two-year low but rallied 2.6p to 408.3p today.
The improved performance by commodity stocks helped the FTSE 100 index to lift 38.47 points to 8219.94.
Futures trading points to a stronger session on Wall Street later after Friday’s big reverse for leading US benchmarks.
Entain shares boosted by online betting recovery
09:15 , Graeme Evans
An upbeat Entain today led the FTSE 100 index, rising 7% after a busy summer of sport helped accelerate the turnaround of its online operations.
The group reported a faster-than-expected return to UK online revenues growth, continuing the trading momentum reported in half-year results last month.
Susannah Streeter, Hargreaves Lansdown’s head of money and markets, said: “That’s not given management enough confidence to raise guidance yet though.
“However, it may indicate that marketing and product development efforts are bearing fruit which have helped drive more players to Entain’s online betting and gaming websites.”
Today’s brief update has been posted ahead of investor meetings scheduled for this week.
New chief executive Gavin Isaacs started last week and will work alongside interim boss Stella David until she succeeds Barry Gibson as Entain chair at the end of September.
Shares rose 43.2p to 682.6p but are still down by about 30% this year.
Entain surge leads improved FTSE 100, Computacenter shares fall
08:26 , Graeme Evans
The FTSE 100 index rose 0.6% or 49.09 points to 8230.56, led by gambling group Entain after a brief update highlighted its continued trading momentum.
The Ladbrokes owner, whose new boss Gavin Isaacs started last week, said UK and Ireland online revenues returned to year-on-year growth earlier than hoped.
Its shares jumped 6% or 38.6p to 678p, while other blue-chip risers included Rio Tinto, Lloyds Banking Group and the housebuilder Vistry.
The FTSE 250 index rose 0.5% or 105.92 points to 20,599.92.
Magners drinks business C&C rose a penny to 152p after its trading update and share buyback announcement. Computacenter reversed 18p to 2570p after it reported a drop in half-year revenues.
China inflation figure weighs on Asia markets
07:58 , Graeme Evans
Asia markets have traded lower after a disappointing inflation figure in China added to the impact of Wall Street’s poor session on Friday.
August’s CPI reading of 0.6% compared with forecasts of 0.7%, while analysts said the highest figure since February was more a reflection of weather-related pressure on food prices than improving demand.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index led Asia’s weaker session by falling 2% and the Shanghai Composite dipped 1.1% to its lowest level since February..
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 retreated another 0.5% for a fifth consecutive daily decline.
No cider summer for C&C as revenue drops at the Bulmers and Magners maker
07:54 , Michael Hunter
The company behind the Bulmers and Magners brand today revealed a 3% drop in revenue the first half of the year, as British drinkers turned away from cider.
C&C said there were “softer cider volumes in GB” in the period. The Irish firm said it expected underlying operating profit it “the range of €39 million to €41 million” (£33 million to £35 million), in line with its expectations.
There was a better showing for the apple-based beverage in C&C’s home market, and one of its beer brands did well during the summer’s main international football tournament.
“Tennent's achieved volume and value share growth over the latest 12-weeks2, supported by targeted marketing campaigns around the Euro 2024 tournament and, despite mixed summer weather, Bulmers outperformed the cider market in Ireland”, C&C said.
It added that “current market conditions remain challenging”, but stood by full-year targets and said it was “making progress towards the operating profit target of €100 million by full-year 2027”.
Focus on US inflation and UK earnings in week ahead
07:34 , Graeme Evans
US inflation figures and the monthly picture on UK jobs and earnings are among the key events in a busy week for economic updates.
Deutsche Bank expects a 30 basis points drop in America’s headline consumer prices index reading to 2.6%, with core prices unchanged at 3.2%.
Wednesday’s inflation print comes a week before the Federal Reserve’s next meeting, when policymakers are likely to begin cutting interest rates.
Meanwhile, Bank of America expects figures tomorrow to show the UK labour market has tightened slightly and that private sector regular wage growth has fallen from 5.2% to 4.9% year-on-year.
The bank also sees a rebound in Wednesday’s July GDP figure to 0.2% amid a reversal of weather and strike impacts in June.
Computacenter revenue tumbles in the first half, but it points to 'progress' for the full year
07:32 , Michael Hunter
Computacenter, the FTSE 250 technology services firm, revealed a near-12% drop in revenue today, and a drop in adjusted operating profit of 30%.
The cyber security and IT outsourcing firm’s chief executive Mike Norris, said the drop “largely reflected the expected normalisation of Technology Sourcing volumes against an exceptionally strong comparative”.
Revenue fell 11.6% to £3.1 billion. Profit before tax was down almost 32% to £84 million.
Norris said the £2.8 billion firm “made an encouraging start to our third quarter and continue to expect stronger momentum in the second half, resulting in progress in the full year on a constant currency basis."
FTSE 100 seen higher after US sell-off, Brent Crude price recovers
07:05 , Graeme Evans
Global markets are set for an improved session as sentiment steadies in the wake of Friday’s mixed report on US non-farm payrolls.
August’s headline figure of 142,000 marked an improvement on the downwardly revised 89,000 for July but came up short of Wall Street expectations.
The S&P 500 index fell 1.7% and the Nasdaq Composite by 2.5%, while the FTSE 100 index finished 0.7% lower on Friday.
London’s top flight is set to start today’s session 30 points higher at 8212, while futures trading is also pointing to a stronger performance in the US.
Brent Crude this morning rose half a dollar to $75.63 a barrel after falling by almost 8% last week. Sterling starts the week at $1.3115.