(Alliance News) - London's FTSE 100 tread water in early trade on Tuesday, with the internationally exposed index held back by a stronger pound and a share price fall for online grocer Ocado Group.
London's blue-chip stock index was up just 1.16 points at 6,524.69. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 16.35 points, or 0.1%, at 21,102.90. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.2% at 1,212.50.
The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.2% at 647.99 points. The Cboe 250 marginally higher at 18,556.44, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 0.1% at 12,685.02.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.1%, but the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was down 0.2%.
"Tuesday showed early signs of a post-splurge hangover, the markets at best holding fire following yesterday's record highs," Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell commented.
The dollar was weak early Tuesday, putting pressure on the dollar-earning stocks in the FTSE 100.
Sterling was quoted at USD1.3771, up from USD1.3740 at the London market close on Monday. The pound reached a high of USD1.3787 earlier on Tuesday morning, a near three-year high.
Ocado shares were down 4.0% early on Tuesday. It posted GBP2.33 billion in revenue for the financial year that ended November 29, up 33% from GBP1.76 billion. This was slightly short of the GBP2.35 billion expected by the market, according to the company-compiled consensus.
Ocado's statutory pretax loss narrowed to GBP44.0 million from GBP214.5 million, with the FTSE 100 company benefiting from a GBP104.6 million gain from exceptional items, swung from a GBP94.1 million hit in financial 2019.
The boost from exceptional items this year came from insurance proceeds from a fire at its Andover, England customer fulfilment centre.
"Ocado delivered full year EBITDA of GBP73.1 million, topping December's forecast of at least GBP70 million. In November, the company was targeting earnings of at least GBP60 million so today's update shows us how much business has improved in recent months, no doubt the tougher restrictions since November have helped," CMC Markets analyst David Madden noted.
Before exceptional items, Ocado's pretax loss widened to GBP148.6 million from GBP120.4 million. According to the company-compiled consensus, the figure was expected to be unchanged.
In Retail alone, revenue jumped 35% as the online grocer got a boost from lockdown measures in the UK.
"The rapid acceleration of many pre-existing trends in business and society has been a feature of the Covid-19 crisis and the dramatic channel shift in grocery is a clear example of this," Chief Executive Officer Tim Steiner said.
Looking ahead, Ocado said annual revenue growth is "highly dependent on length of Covid-19 restrictions". It also has earmarked around GBP700 million in total capital expenditure.
"It appears investors have potentially been put off by Ocado's planned GBP700 million in capital expenditure, and a subdued outlook for UK retail growth in the coming 12 months," Spreadex's Campbell added.
FTSE 100 housebuilders were higher, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon were both up 0.5%, in positive read across from smaller peer Bellway.
FTSE 250-listed Bellway rose 2.7% after reporting a "record" output in its first-half.
Bellway said it completed 5,656 new homes in the six months to January 31. This was a 6.3% annual improvement and also "record first half volume output" for the housebuilder.
Bellway said first-half revenue was up 12% year-on-year to GBP1.72 billion.
The housing sector was spared from the two most recent UK Covid-19 lockdowns and emerged from the Spring shutdown earlier than many other sectors.
Less fortunate was package holiday operator Tui, which posted a sharp first-quarter loss, succumbing to European travel restrictions. But its stock was up 0.4% as it hopes for an end to these curbs around Easter and said it has enough financial liquidity to bridge to the expected summer 2021 travel recovery.
The Anglo-German tour operator Tui posted an 88% revenue plunge in its first quarter ended December 31. Revenue came in at EUR468.1 million from EUR3.85 billion. Its underlying loss before interest and tax stretched to EUR698.6 million from EUR146.7 million.
The dramatic revenue drop was "as a result of extended travel restrictions across our key European markets during November and December 2020", Tui explained.
New variants of Covid-19 have meant governments in Europe have been forced to impose more international travel curbs.
On AIM, Joules rose 6.9%, becoming one of the latest retailers to engage in M&A action.
The retailer bolstered its offering with the acquisition of Garden Trading Co for GBP9 million upfront.
The home and garden products firm strengthens "Joules' position in the important and fast-growing home, garden & outdoor category".
The news follows both boohoo and ASOS snapping up former Arcadia Group brands
The euro was quoted at USD1.2070, improved from USD1.2050 at the European equities close Monday.
German trade figures for December were mixed, with official figures on Tuesday showing the country's exports rose but its trade surplus disappointed market expectations.
Numbers from Destatis showed Germany's trade surplus rose to EUR16.1 billion in December from EUR15.9 billion in November. According to consensus cited by FXStreet, Germany's trade surplus was forecast to rise to EUR16.3 billion in December, so the December figure fell short of expectations.
Exports were 0.1% higher monthly and 2.7% higher annually at EUR100.7 billion. This figure topped market expectations of a 1% monthly decline.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar fetched JPY104.87, down from JPY105.17 at the London market close on Monday.
A barrel of Brent oil was quoted at USD61.00 early Tuesday, up from USD60.32 at the London equities close on Monday.
Gold fetched USD1,840.23 an ounce, improved from USD1,836.80.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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