(Alliance News) -Â London stocks edged up in opening trade on Wednesday, with the mid-cap FTSE 250 outpacing the blue-chip FTSE 100 as shares in Vectura and Mediclinic jumped on takeover deals.
The FTSE 100 index was up 7.10 points, or 0.1%, at 7,036.89 early Wednesday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 115.54 points, or 0.5%, at 22,554.44. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.3% at 1,252.45.
The Cboe UK 100 index was flat at 701.21. The Cboe 250 was up 0.4% at 20,281.00, and the Cboe Small Companies down 0.3% at 14,832.76.
In mainland Europe, both the CAC 40 in Paris the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 0.3% early Wednesday.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.3%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended up 0.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 0.8%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney ended down 0.3%.
"Globally speaking, with a mixed set of soft and encouraging data from the US, there is no apparent reason for taking a broader bearish view, and activity in US futures hint that the sentiment could be improved at today's session," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote.
Futures are in the green for Wednesday's US session, with the Dow Jones called up 0.3% after a 0.2% fall on Tuesday.
"Inflation worries are still on the back of average investor's mind, but the Fed officials' frequently repeated comments that the 'rising inflation won't last long' has a hypnotizing and a soothing effect on the sentiment," said Ozkardeskaya. "Therefore, the expectation of a robust GDP figure from the US on Thursday should keep the bulls in charge of the market."
Croda International was at the top of the FTSE 100 in early trade, rising 2.8% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the specialty chemicals firm to Buy from Sell.
British Land slid 2.2% as it reported a fall in portfolio value in a year when Covid-19 emptied office buildings.
EPRA net tangible assets per share fell 16% to 648 pence at March 31 from 773p a year earlier, while portfolio value fell 11% to GBP9.13 billion. British Land's pretax loss for the financial year was GBP1.05 billion, narrowed slightly from GBP1.12 billion.
"While Covid-19 has clearly impacted our performance, with the portfolio value down 10.8%, we have a strong balance sheet and have already delivered excellent progress against our four priorities. We've sold GBP1.2 billion of assets, overall 6.2% ahead of book value, completed our first net zero development at 100 Liverpool Street and committed to develop Norton Folgate and 1 Broadgate, where we have pre let nearly 30% of the office space to JLL," said Chief Executive Simon Carter.
JLL is real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle.
British Land's dividend for the year totalled 15.04p, down 5.8% from 15.97p the year prior.
Looking ahead, British Land noted that the UK's gradual exit from lockdown has strengthened economic confidence. It expects office rents to fall by up to 5% before recovering. It noted that retail occupational markets remain tough, and it expects rents to decline further, though it is seeing signs of stabilisation on some retail parks. The rebound in retail footfall has been encouraging, it added.
"Although it is early days, economic indicators are positive, and we are hopeful that we are starting to emerge from the pandemic," said British Land.
Mid-cap listing Vectura jumped 31% to 160.20p after agreeing to be taken over by Murano Bidco, a company controlled by funds managed by Carlyle Europe Partners V, in a deal worth GBP958 million.
Vectura is a pharmaceuticals business based in Chippenham, England and focused on the development of inhaled products.
Murano has offered 155 pence per Vectura share, comprising 136p in cash and a 19p Vectura dividend. This represents a 32% premium to Tuesday's ex-dividend closing price of 103p, and a 27% premium to Tuesday's actual closing price of 122p.
"While the Vectura directors remain confident in the long-term fundamentals of the Vectura group, we believe that this is an attractive offer for Vectura shareholders, which secures the delivery of future value for Vectura shareholders in cash today," said Chair Bruno Angelici.
Mediclinic International rose 5.7% as investee Spire Healthcare agreed to a cash takeover offer from Ramsay Health Care. The offer of 240 pence per share is 24% above Spire's closing price on Tuesday of 193.00p. The offer values Spire's entire share capital at GBP999.6 million and gives the hospital operator an enterprise value, including debt, of GBP2.06 billion.
Spire was up 25% to 241.50p.
Mediclinic, a 29.9% shareholder, said it has agreed to the takeover offer for its holding. The offer values this at GBP287.8 million, it noted. Mediclinic said it has provided Ramsay with an irrevocable undertaking to vote in favour of the offer.
Marks & Spencer shares advanced 4.7%, after the retailer reported a fall in revenue and swing to loss for its recently-ended financial year, but hailed its transformation in the period.
Revenue fell to GBP9.16 billion in the year to April 3 from GBP10.18 billion, with M&S swinging to a pretax loss of GBP209.4 million from profit of GBP67.2 million the year before.
"Our results for the year bear the impact of the pandemic spanning the beginning of the ï¬rst national lockdown through to near to the end of the third lockdown in the UK. However, they also reflect an acceleration of the transformation which enabled the business to deliver a resilient performance," the clothing, homewares and food retailer said.
Trading in the first six weeks of the new financial year and since reopening has been ahead of the comparable period two years ago and its central case, M&S said. At this "early stage", the company expects to achieve profit before tax and adjusted items between GBP300 million and GBP350 million, which would be up sharply on GBP50.3 million reported for the recently-ended year.
Sterling was quoted at USD1.4139 early Wednesday, firm on USD1.4128 at the London equities close on Tuesday.
The euro traded at USD1.2240 early Wednesday, up slightly from USD1.2236 late Tuesday. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JPY108.87, down from JPY108.96.
Gold was quoted at USD1,905.72 an ounce early Wednesday, rising from USD1,892.55 on Tuesday. The precious metal was trading above the USD1,900 mark for the first time since the start of 2021.
Brent oil was trading at USD69.06 a barrel early Wednesday, up on USD68.71 late Tuesday.
By Lucy Heming;Â lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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