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(Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened higher on Friday on the back of overnight gains on Wall Street, while Ukraine-focused Ferrexpo led the midcaps on hopes its prospects are not as dire as first feared.
The FTSE 100 index was up 68.25 points, or 0.9%, at 7,620.06 early Friday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 117.37 points, or 0.6%, at 21,155.17. The AIM All-Share index was up 3.23 points, or 0.3%, at 1,053.95.
The Cboe UK 100 index was up 1.0% at 758.74. The Cboe 250 was up 0.6% at 18,580.29, and the Cboe Small Companies up 0.2% at 15,360.21.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 1.1%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was up 1.2%.
Wall Street recovered from steep intraday losses to end on a positive note on Thursday, even as investors braced for tighter monetary policy from the US Federal Reserve.
"The late recovery on Wall Street and the accompanying hunt for defensive cash earners has fed straight through to the UK's premier index, where a strong opening adds to previous gains," commented interactive investor's Richard Hunter.
"The mark up in share prices was broad based, with the selection of cyclical mature companies in the index providing continuing attraction to investors looking to consolidate the trend towards value stocks, at the expensive of growth stocks in a tightening environment," Hunter added.
In the FTSE 250, Ferrexpo was the best performer, up 12%. The iron ore pellet producer reported total iron ore pellet production of 2.7 million tonnes in the first quarter of 2022, in line with the same period in 2021, and 11% below the fourth quarter due to operational and logistical constraints following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukraine-focused miner said production continued to comprise entirely of high grade forms of iron ore, which are those with an iron ore grade of 65% Fe or above. It also generated first-quarter sales of 2.6 million tonnes, scaling production activities to meet accessible pellet demand.
Logistics pathways to Europe via rail and barge remain open, while activities at the Black Sea port of Pivdennyi continue to be suspended, it explained.
"We all hope for a swift resolution, this war appears set to continue indefinitely. No doubt as the market learns that Ferrexpo is still a robust, cash-generating company, capable of paying dividends - it will likely become an attractive yield play. However, we would not expect Ferrexpo to materially re-rate until the war ends," said Liberum analyst Ben Davies.
CMC Markets was up 5.0% after the online trading company said it expects its annual profit to come at the upper end of forecasts after enjoying its "strongest quarter" of its financial year.
The online trading company said its net operating income performance for the year ended March 31 will be a non-pandemic record. CMC saw a bump in fortunes during the pandemic amid market volatility.
CMC said the fourth quarter was the strongest quarter of if its financial year, pushing annual net operating income to the top end of guidance at around GBP280 million.
This would represent a 32% fall from GBP409.8 million a year prior, a period boosted by the pandemic. Compared to financial 2020, net operating income is up 11% from GBP252.0 million.
Operating costs for financial 2022, excluding variable remuneration, are expected to be GBP173 million, up from GBP168 million the year before. The increase primarily reflects higher personnel costs to deliver strategic objectives, CMC explained.
Volution Group was up 4.0% after Jefferies upgraded the ventilation products supplier to 'buy' from 'hold'.
Johnson Matthey was up 1.0% after the speciality chemicals company said it anticipates its recently-ended financial year will meet market expectations, following a recovery for its Clean Air business.
The London-based company said for its year ended March 31, underlying operating profit is likely to meet market consensus expectations of around GBP549 million, within a range of GBP528 million to GBP572 million.
This would be around 8.9% higher than underlying operating profit of GBP504 million in financial 2021.
At the other end of the midcaps, International Public Partnerships was the worst performer, down 4.1% at 163.60 pence. The infrastructure investment company said it will launch a placing, open offer, offer for subscription and intermediaries offer at an issue price of 159.50p each.
The issue price represents a discount of 6.5% to the closing price of 170.60p on Thursday.
On AIM, Jet2 was up 3.5% after the budget airline guided to a slightly widened full-year loss but pointed to an improvement in travel conditions towards the end of its financial year.
The travel operator expects a loss before foreign exchange revaluation and tax for the year ended March 31 of between GBP378 million and GBP383 million. This compares with the GBP373.8 million loss it reported the year before.
The firm reported a hit over winter from the Omicron variant and the reimposition of international travel restrictions, but said the relaxation of UK travel restrictions in early 2022 has resulted in a material increase in bookings with average load factors for February and March approaching seasonal norms.
Positively, average load factors for the Summer 2022 season are only just behind pre-virus levels.
In Asia on Friday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.4%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.5%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.1%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney ended up 0.5%.
The dollar was higher across the board. The euro was priced at USD1.0852, down from USD1.0900. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY124.06 in London, up from JPY123.85.
The pound was quoted at USD1.3032 early Friday, down from USD1.3057 at the London equities close Thursday.
Brent was quoted at USD101.30 a barrel on Friday morning, up from USD99.08 a barrel Thursday evening. Gold stood at USD1,930.82 an ounce, soft against USD1,931.30.
The main data print on a quiet Friday will be wholesale inventories from the US at 1500 BST.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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