London open: Stocks edge up ahead of BoE policy announcement

(Sharecast News) - London stocks edged up in early trade on Thursday as investors eyed the latest policy announcement from the Bank of England.
At 0830 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 7,090.21.

Kallum Pickering, senior economist at Berenberg, said: "We see a roughly even chance that the BoE could surprise markets today by signalling that it will end its planned asset purchases in August, instead of December as previously announced.

"While such a change would not have major economic consequences, it could take bond markets by surprise. Any commensurate jump in gilt yields could trigger a temporary correction in equity markets."

On the corporate front, Crest Nicholson rallied after the housebuilder said it swung to a first-half profit and upgraded its full-year profit guidance amid solid demand. Peers followed suit, with Berkeley, Barratt, Taylor Wimpey, Vistry and Bellway all up.

Distribution specialist Bunzl gained after it said first-half revenue is expected to increase by around 1% at actual exchange rates and 6% - 7% at constant rates as a recovery in its base business, including the food service and retail sectors was largely offset by a fall in Covid-related orders.

Wealth manager Rathbone Brothers was weaker after it raised net proceeds of around £49m in a placing to help fund the £150m acquisition of UK financial planning business Saunderson House. The company placed just over 2.8m ordinary shares with institutional investors at 1,760p each, which is a 7.9% discount to the closing share price on Wednesday.

Elsewhere, United Utilities, Vodafone, British Land, Airtel Africa, Tate & Lyle, LXI Reit and JD Sports were all in the red as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,090.21 0.23%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,679.45 0.09%
techMARK (TASX) 4,470.48 -0.10%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 4,753.00p 2.90%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,450.00p 2.81%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 708.00p 1.61%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 162.90p 1.43%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 468.30p 1.10%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,260.00p 1.08%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,281.50p 1.02%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,593.00p 0.98%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 495.00p 0.88%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 5,616.00p 0.86%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

United Utilities Group (UU.) 985.40p -3.49%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 126.96p -2.83%
British Land Company (BLND) 508.80p -1.93%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,233.00p -0.52%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 694.40p -0.52%
BP (BP.) 322.60p -0.49%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 899.40p -0.42%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,416.60p -0.37%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,237.00p -0.31%
Informa (INF) 514.20p -0.31%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Chrysalis Investments Limited NPV (CHRY) 251.00p 3.29%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 444.40p 3.25%
PureTech Health (PRTC) 357.00p 3.18%
Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 252.50p 2.23%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,084.00p 2.07%
Network International Holdings (NETW) 385.70p 1.71%
Vistry Group (VTY) 1,225.00p 1.37%
Bellway (BWY) 3,397.00p 1.34%
Hilton Food Group (HFG) 1,092.00p 1.30%
IMI (IMI) 1,737.00p 1.22%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

LXI Reit (LXI) 136.00p -5.82%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 746.20p -2.91%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 81.85p -2.91%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 222.90p -2.66%
Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 1,860.00p -2.62%
Rank Group (RNK) 170.00p -1.85%
Energean (ENOG) 759.00p -1.62%
Edinburgh Inv Trust (EDIN) 621.00p -1.27%
easyJet (EZJ) 962.00p -1.19%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 1,862.00p -1.09%