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LONDON (Alliance News) - London stock prices were rebounding early Tuesday, after suffering two sessions of heavy, Brexit-induced losses, as housebuilders began making up some of the sharp recent declines.
The FTSE 100 started the day up 2.3%, or 134.77 points, at 6,116.94. Following the Brexit vote early Friday, and before Tuesday's gains, the blue-chip index had lost 5.6%. The FTSE 250 index was up 3.2% at 15,451.95, having lost 14% after the Brexit vote and before Tuesday's open.
The AIM All-Share was up 0.7% at 681.86 early Tuesday.
Stock indices in mainland Europe also were bouncing up. The CAC 40 index in Paris was up 2.4% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 2.3%.
In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended up 0.1%, the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.6% while the Hang Seng continues down 0.5%.
Among the best performers In London's blue-chip index were housebuilders. Persimmon was up 6.6%, Taylor Wimpey up 6.2%, and Barratt Developments up 5.4%. They had been amongst the hardest hit stocks in the Brexit aftermath.
Also recovering were banks, with Barclays up 7.6% and Lloyds Banking Group up 5.9%.
There was a similar pattern in the FTSE 250, with housebuilders Redrow up 9.8% and Bovis Homes Group up 9.1%, both amongst the best performers.
Redrow said Tuesday pretax profit for its financial year will be above the top-end of analyst estimates, after it sold more houses at a higher average selling price, and said demand appears to be remaining strong following the Brexit vote.
Redrow said its revenue for the year to the end of June was GBP1.38 billion, a 20% increase from the GBP1.15 billion posted a year earlier, on the back of a 17% increase in the number of homes sold, to 4,716 from 4,022, and the number of private completions rising to 3,882 from 3,451.
Average selling price of private homes was up at GBP328,000 from GBP297,300, and said its pretax profit will be ahead of analyst estimates which currently stand at GBP240.0 million.
The company noted that there was no impact on house sales or visitor levels in the run up to the UK referendum on EU membership, and said that whilst "it is too early to tell whether Brexit will have any effect on future sales, initial feedback is that sites remain busy, reservations continue to be taken and, indeed, we witnessed long queues and strong reservations at new sites launched last weekend".
Security services and outsourcing provider G4S was the best performer in the FTSE 250, up 10% after it was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral by Credit Suisse, according to traders.
Ocado Group, up 10%, reported growth in profit in the first half of its financial year as sales grew on the back of a rise in active customer numbers and order volumes, although the average basket value declined in a deflationary food market.
The online grocery retailer said its pretax profit in the 24 weeks ended May 15 grew to GBP8.5 million from GBP7.2 million in the same period the year before, as revenue rose to GBP584.2 million from GBP507.7 million.
Ocado said the number of active customers increased by 15% to 541,000 from 471,000, and order volumes grew by 18% to an average of 225,000 orders per week from 191,000, although the average basket value declined by 2.2% to GBP110.10 from GBP112.59 due to price deflation in the market.
Life insurer and investment manager Legal & General Group said it has appointed Whitehall veteran John Kingman as its new chairman.
Kingman's appointment has been approved by UK financial industry regulators the Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority, L&G said. He will take over from Rudy Markham, who has been interim chairman since John Stewart stepped down on June 1.
L&G also said its asset portfolio is well-diversified and it had contingency plan in place for a Brexit. The stock traded up 8.9%.
Still ahead in the economic calendar, European Central Bank President Draghi will be speaking again at the ECB forum in Portugal at 0900 BST and the Confederation of British Industry distributive trades survey is at 1100 BST.
US first quarter GDP is at 1330 BST at the same time as personal consumption expenditure. At 1400 BST are S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices, followed by consumer confidence and the Richmond Fed manufacturing index at 1500 BST.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
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