Last checked at 
(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened higher on Wednesday following soothing words from US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday, while J Sainsbury shares rose after upgrading profit guidance.
The Fed expects a "return to normal supply conditions" in the coming months, Powell said, but "if we see inflation persisting at high levels longer than expected...we will use our tools to get inflation back".
The FTSE 100 index was up 38.74 points, or 0.5%, at 7,530.11 early Wednesday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 136.89 points, or 0.6%, at 23,165.07. The AIM All-Share index was up 2.45 points, or 0.1%, at 1,176.09.
The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.7% at 747.37. The Cboe 250 was down 0.8% at 20,652.01, and the Cboe Small Companies up 0.1% at 15,580.24.
The CAC 40 stock index in Paris was up 0.5%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was 0.6% higher.
In the FTSE 100, J Sainsbury was up 1.8% after the supermarket chain said its investment in value, new products and service drove volume market share gains, trading ahead of the overall UK market through its financial third quarter and the key Christmas period.
For the 16 weeks to January 8, total retail sales - excluding fuel - was down 5.3% following 6.8% growth in third quarter of financial 2021.
Last week, market research firm Kantar, in its latest UK grocery market survey, had said Sainsbury's suffered a 4.4% annual decline in sales to GBP4.97 billion in the 12 weeks that ended December 26. The overall market was down 3.0% from a year before in the same period, Kantar said.
However, Sainsbury's on Wednesday noted that Groceries Online sales grew by 92% versus two years ago, with weekly orders increasing again in recent weeks to over 700,000 per week. Orders in Christmas week were up 41% year-on-year.
Looking ahead, Sainsbury said it is raising annual profit guidance, reflecting strong grocery sales, cost savings delivery, and an improved outlook for Sainsbury's Bank.
For the financial year that ends in March, it expects to report underlying pretax profit of at least GBP720 million, having posted underlying pretax profit of GBP356 million in financial 2021. In addition, the latest figure was up from the GBP660 million Sainsbury's had forecast last July.
Rival grocer Tesco reports its Christmas trading update on Thursday. It was up 0.2%.
Conversely, insurer Phoenix Group was among the worst performers, down 0.7% at 680.00 pence. Swiss Re sold 66.2 million shares in Phoenix Group at 664p each, raising GBP440 million.
Following the placing run by Merrill Lynch, which was first announced late Tuesday, Swiss Re has fully exited its holding in Phoenix Group.
In the FTSE 250, Dunelm was the top performer, up 7.0%, after the home furnishings retailer reported GBP407 million in total sales in the 13 weeks that ended December 25, its financial second quarter.
This was up 13% on a year ago and up 26% on two years ago. Digital sales represented 33% of this total, down from 41% a year ago, though up from 21% two years ago.
Dunelm said gross margin increased by 160 basis during the second quarter and 80 points during the first half, ahead of its expectations, amid higher full-price sales of seasonal ranges.
Gross margin for the full year is now seen down 30 to 50 basis points from financial 2021, which is better than expected. Dunelm said it expects first half pretax profit of GBP140 million, up from GBP112 million a year ago and GBP84 million two years before.
At the other end of the midcaps, Jupiter Fund Management was the worst performer, down 3.7%, after JPMorgan downgraded the money manager to Neutral from Overweight.
Elsewhere in London, Just Eat Takeaway.com was down 1.6% as the food delivery firm pledged to further ramp-up investment.
The Anglo-Dutch firm processed 1.1 billion orders in 2021, representing a 33% increase compared with the previous year. The company processed EUR273.7 million orders in the fourth quarter, a 14% increase from EUR240.4 million in the same period of 2020.
The UK & Ireland was the fastest growing division for both the quarter and the year, Just Eat noted, with adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation significantly improving. Sales orders for the region in 2021 rose 52% year-on-year to EUR295.9 million while the gross transaction value increased 42% to EUR6.6 billion.
Just Eat said it will invest heavily, especially in its London network, while it expects to further improve profitability in 2022. Orders from North America for the year rose 19% to EUR373.9 million, with the value of orders up by 6% to EUR91.6 million.
Rival Deliveroo was down 0.5% in a negative read-across.
The Nikkei 225 index closed up 1.9% in Tokyo on Wednesday. The Shanghai Composite ended up 0.8%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 2.8%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed up 0.7%.
Consumer inflation in China nudged down in December, official data showed, on the back of easing food and energy costs.
The consumer price index, a key gauge of retail inflation in the world's second-biggest economy, rose 1.5% on-year, slowing from 2.3% in November and slightly below analysts' expectations. Meanwhile, factory inflation came in lower than expected on-year as well at 10% in December, following a 13% rise in November.
Following the inflation reading from China, investors were looking ahead to inflation data from the US at 1330 GMT.
The US consumer price index print for December is expected to show the highest annual inflation in 40 years at 7.0%, following a 6.8% rise in November.
The pound was quoted at USD1.3628 early Wednesday, up from USD1.3617 at the London equities close Tuesday.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to face members of Parliament amid furious demands to come clean over his attendance at a reported 'bring your own booze' party in the No 10 garden in breach of Covid lockdown rules.
Johnson will make his first public appearance since the leak on Monday of an email from his principal private secretary Martin Reynolds inviting Downing Street staff to the gathering in May 2020.
The euro was priced at USD1.1363, higher against USD1.1327. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar was trading at JPY115.36, unchanged from JPY115.37.
Brent oil was quoted at USD84.01 a barrel Wednesday morning, rising from USD83.44 late Tuesday. Gold stood at USD1,816.10 an ounce, flat from USD1,816.01.
Wednesday's economic calendar has eurozone industrial production figures at 1000 GMT.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
