LONDON MARKET OPEN: Risk-On Mood Pushes Stocks Into Green

(Alliance News) - Shares in London were trading in the positive territory early on Wednesday, as investors focused on bargain-hunting and ignored riots and curfews in the US.

The FTSE 100 index was up 62.31 points, or 1.0%, at 6,282.45 early Wednesday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 203.51 points, or 1.2%, 17,639.82. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.4% at 894.72.

The Cboe UK 100 index was up 1.1% at 10,632.26. The Cboe 250 also was up 1.1%, at 15,112.38, and the Cboe Small Companies up 0.1% at 12,482.59.

In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 1.4%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was 1.5% higher.

In Asia on Wednesday, Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo closed up 1.3%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 1.3%.

"Equities are pushing higher, along with oil and the antipodeans, meanwhile safe havens US dollar and gold are once again on the back foot," said City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta.

Brent oil was trading at USD40.18 a barrel, higher than USD39.20 at the London equities close on Tuesday.

Gold was priced at USD1,721.26 an ounce early Wednesday, lower than USD1,738.21 late on Tuesday.

The euro traded at USD1.1202 early Wednesday, down from USD1.1210 late Tuesday. Sterling was quoted at USD1.2584, firm from USD1.2535 at the London equities close on Tuesday.

Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JPY108.86, up from JPY108.55 on Tuesday.

"As lockdown measures continue to ease, investors shrugged off geopolitical tensions and civil unrest on the streets of the US," continued Cincotta.

"The markets are keen to fall back into the familiar rhythm of 'the only way is up', boosted by cheap money and reopening optimism without fully digesting the economic hit and scars which are being left behind," added Cincotta.

Protesters defied curfews across the US on Tuesday as leaders scrambled to stem anger over police racism, while President Donald Trump rejected criticism over his use of force to break up a peaceful rally.

Standoffs between police and demonstrators stretched into the night in cities from New York to Los Angeles over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man whose killing has brought once-in-a-generation protests to the nation for the past week. But there were fewer reports of the looting and violence that had soured street demonstrations in previous nights.

On the London Stock Exchange, Chemring was the best performer among the mid-caps, up 21% in early trading, as it reported 37% revenue growth in the six months to the end of April to GBP191.0 million, taking pretax profit up to GBP19.0 million from GBP4.3 million a year ago.

The defence technology firm increased its interim payout by 8% to 1.3 pence a share.

The company said its performance in the first half of its current financial year was ahead of expectations, reflecting strong performance in both segments of its business and some positive timing differences.

Chemring reported good progress in securing new business in the UK, US and Australia for the supply of global countermeasures.

Looking forward, Chemring said all of its businesses have remained open despite the challenges presented by Covid-19. Its full-year expectations are unchanged, despite the challenging environment, with about 95% of expected second-half revenue in the order book or delivered to date.

Marks & Spencer was up 5.6% after Jefferies raised the UK retailer to Buy from Hold.

Wizz Air started the day up 1.8% as it reported double-digit profit growth in its financial year ended March 31.

The eastern Europe-focused airline reported record underlying profit of EUR344.8 million for the financial year to the end of March, up 30% on the prior year. Pretax profit also jumped, to EUR294.1 million from EUR128.9 million.

The Budapest, Hungary-based company said it carried 40.0 million passengers in the recent financial year, a 16% increase from 34.6 million the year before. Revenue grew 19% to EUR2.76 billion.

Ticket revenue per passenger fell by 4.6% to EUR37.7, Wizz Air noted, but it said ancillary revenue per passenger increased by 14% to EUR31.3 per passenger.

The company said it expanded its fleet by 9 aircraft during the year to 121 aircraft, with over 47% of seats now served by the more cost-effective A321 type aircraft. The current average aircraft age of Wizz Air is 5.4 years.

Outside of FTSE 250 index, Ryanair Holdings was up 0.8% despite saying that its traffic in May dropped by 99.5% to 70,000 passengers versus the 14.1 million passengers it carried a year earlier, as Covid-19 airspace closures continue to hurt its operations.

Ryanair said it operated just 701 scheduled flights in May, including a number of rescue and medical flights on behalf of various EU governments, versus its budgeted schedule of 70,000 flights.

Going forward, Ryanair said it expects minimal traffic in June, due to multiple EU government flight bans and restrictions.

Blue-chip airlines International Consolidated Airlines Group and easyJet were up 3.6% and 3.2%, respectively, in early trade.

The economic events calendar on Wednesday has services PMI readings from the eurozone, UK and the US at 0900 BST, 0930 BST and 1445 BST, respectively.

By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com

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