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(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened solidly higher on Monday, as central banks remain in focus, with the Bank of England and European Central Bank taking centre stage later this week, after the US Federal Reserve last week laid the foundations for a series of interest rate hikes in 2022.
Rate hike worries have hit equities at the start of 2022, though the FTSE 100 has outperformed global peers so far this year.
The FTSE 100 index was up 15.33 points, or 0.2%, at 7,481.40 early Monday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 164.39 points, or 0.8%, at 21,807.69. The AIM All-Share index was up 5.44 points, 0.5%, at 1,087.95.
The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.2% at 743.47. The Cboe 250 also was up 0.2% at 19,507.76, and the Cboe Small Companies was 0.3% higher at 15,494.96.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 stock index in Paris was up 0.8% and the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was 1.0% higher.
In Asia on Monday, stocks were largely higher. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo closed up 1.1%, though the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney fell 0.2%. The Hang Seng Index rose 1.1% in an abbreviated trading session on Monday ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday. Financial markets in Shanghai are closed all week.
"Equity markets across the Asia Pacific are mostly trading higher this morning, pointing to some improvement in risk sentiment despite ongoing geopolitical tensions elsewhere," analysts at Lloyds Bank commented.
The UN Security Council is set to discuss the latest chapter in the Ukraine conflict for the first time on Monday, as a build-up of Russian troops near the border causes tensions to spiral with the West.
The US put the issue on the agenda last week after informal talks with other Security Council members and Ukraine. No solution to the stand-off is expected on Monday. Instead, the US is expected to use the international stage as leverage against Russia.
The US and its Western allies have repeatedly warned of a possible imminent invasion of Ukraine. They are demanding a withdrawal of some 100,000 Russian troops from the border region.
The economic calendar on Monday has eurozone gross domestic product at 1000 GMT and German inflation at 1300 GMT. Manufacturing PMIs across Europe and the US are released on Tuesday.
Thursday sees the ECB and BoE announce their latest monetary policy decisions.
"The market will also want to hear what the BoE plans to do with its balance sheet. We suspect, to start with at least, the balance sheet run-off will be very passive and, like the Fed, interest rate hikes will be the preferred choice for tighter policy," analysts at Dutch bank ING commented.
The dollar was mixed on Monday.
The pound fetched USD1.3444 early Monday, up from USD1.3422 late Friday. The euro stood at USD1.1181, soft on USD1.1163. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY115.40, up from JPY115.18.
In London, Vodafone shares were 2.8% higher, the best blue-chip performer. Bloomberg late Friday reported activist investor Cevian Capital has built up a stake in the telecommunications company.
Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, said the Swedish investment firm has been in talks with officials at Vodafone for several months, in a bid to improve the FTSE 100 company's fortunes.
Measures could include selling some operations, making stock buybacks, and boosting its presence in key markets, Bloomberg added.
At the other end of London's large caps, BT was down 3.2%.
Elsewhere, Lookers shares rose 1.0%. The car dealer said Constellation Automotive has snapped up just shy of a 20% stake.
Constellation Automotive owns digital vehicle marketplace WeBuyAnyCar, as well as Cinch, a platform which also allows for the buying and selling of vehicles online.
A regulatory filing noted the stake was acquired on Thursday. Constellation purchased 78 million shares at 102 pence each, GBP79.6 million in total, from Tony Bramall. Bramall had stepped down as a non-executive from Lookers back in December 2020.
Peer Pendragon rose 1.4%.
On AIM, media company Next Fifteen jumped 10%. The company said its revenue surged 34% in both the fourth quarter and the full year which concludes on Monday.
"For the three-month period to 31 January 2022, the group's total revenues are expected to be up by approximately 34% compared with the same period last year, with organic revenue growth of 24%. This will result in revenues for the year to 31 January 2022 being up 34% in total, with organic revenue growth of 24%. This strong performance is driving results ahead of market expectations and sets us up well for a positive start to our new financial year, albeit against increasingly tougher comparables," Next Fifteen said.
Outside of the London Stock Exchange, Ryanair shares were down 0.7% in Dublin. The former London-listing said the Omicron outbreak badly damaged its peak Christmas and New Year bookings, as it reported a quarterly loss.
The Dublin-based airline suffered a net loss of EUR96 million for the three months that ended December 31, its financial third quarter. Though this was narrowed from EUR321 million a year before, it was double the net loss Ryanair reported for the entire first half of its financial year of EUR48 million.
Revenue totalled EUR1.47 billion in the recent quarter, up from the Covid-depressed level of EUR340 million a year before.
In the London-listed travel sector, easyJet shares were 0.3% lower. It is launching a drive to recruit 1,000 pilots over the next five years, with a focus on attracting more women.
The company, which has predicted a strong summer of bookings as the UK emerges from the virus crisis, said it wants to tackle a gender imbalance in the industry.
Its pilot training programme is being launched for the first time since the start of the pandemic with a new advertising campaign on Monday showing some of the skills required.
Brent oil was quoted at USD89.10 a barrel early Monday, down from USD90.59 at the London equities close on Friday. Gold was trading at USD1,790.64 an ounce, up from USD1,784.78.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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