London open: Stocks rise ahead of Jackson Hole; Entertainment One surges on Hasbro deal

(Sharecast News) - London stocks rose in early trade on Friday, with deal news injecting a little life into otherwise dull proceedings, as investors eyed a speech by Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole symposium.
At 0830 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.5% at 7,164.04, while the pound was down 0.4% against the dollar at 1.2209 and 0.3% lower versus the euro at 1.1025.

Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: "As investors start to eye the central bank shindig in Jackson Hole, the pound decided to rein in the enthusiasm it displayed on Thursday.

"Perhaps concerned that yesterday's surge was a tad overdone - after all, all Macron and Merkel did was make positive noise about a deal; nothing more substantial than that was announced - sterling slipped 0.4% against the dollar and 0.3% against the euro. And while, yes, it still means the currency has had a decent couple of weeks, in the wider context of the last few months it remains deeply troubled.

"Friday's main event appears to be a 3pm speech, titled 'Challenges for Monetary Policy', from Jerome Powell in Jackson Hole. How broad-strokes the talk will be is unclear; nevertheless, investors will be going over the comments with a fine tooth comb in order to ascertain the Fed's direction ahead of September's meeting, and beyond."

In equity news, Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One surged to the top of the FTSE 250 as it agreed to be bought by Hasbro in an all-cash deal valuing the UK company at £3.3bn. The US toymaker will pay £5.60 for each eOne share - 31% more than eOne's average share price over the past 30 days.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Drew McReynolds said: "Given the nature of the current content cycle where there are a number of emerging large new entrants and platforms alongside several large incumbents, we would not rule out a competing bid for eOne. However, we view the probability of a competing bid to be much less likely than not."

He said Hasbro's $130m of estimated gains, a competitive offer price and eOne's ability to size up proposed offers suggested a rival offer was unlikely.

GlaxoSmithKline was in the green after the pharmaceuticals giant said a clinical trial of its blood cancer treatment met its primary goal.

Elsewhere, Computacenter ticked higher after saying it expects full -year profit growth to be "the best in the company's history" as it reported a 2.7% rise in adjusted interim pre-tax profits to £53.5m.

On the downside, shares of Woodford Patient Capital Trust slumped after it said the revision of the value of its holding in IH Holdings International will cut its overall net asset value by 3.4p.



Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,164.04 0.50%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,305.66 0.52%
techMARK (TASX) 3,842.25 0.34%

FTSE 100 - Risers

ITV (ITV) 117.45p 2.44%
CRH (CRH) 2,653.00p 1.92%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 2,158.00p 1.70%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 336.00p 1.69%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 815.40p 1.49%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 171.10p 1.39%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,887.00p 1.37%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,938.50p 1.36%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 766.60p 1.32%
Centrica (CNA) 65.98p 1.32%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 197.75p -0.98%
Just Eat (JE.) 768.00p -0.90%
BAE Systems (BA.) 548.00p -0.33%
Flutter Entertainment (FLTR) 6,756.00p -0.30%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,277.50p -0.04%
BP (BP.) 494.25p -0.04%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 761.20p -0.03%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 191.80p 0.03%
Compass Group (CPG) 2,048.60p 0.08%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 619.20p 0.10%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 575.00p 29.68%
Balfour Beatty (BBY) 220.20p 2.13%
Ascential (ASCL) 385.00p 2.12%
Countryside Properties (CSP) 302.60p 2.09%
Hammerson (HMSO) 223.40p 2.01%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,360.00p 1.87%
Sirius Minerals (SXX) 9.91p 1.86%
Workspace Group (WKP) 866.50p 1.82%
Hilton Food Group (HFG) 995.00p 1.74%
RHI Magnesita N.V. (DI) (RHIM) 4,456.00p 1.60%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) 39.17p -10.78%
Grafton Group Units (GFTU) 714.50p -1.38%
Syncona Limited NPV (SYNC) 228.51p -1.29%
Vivo Energy (VVO) 118.40p -1.00%
Computacenter (CCC) 1,386.74p -0.88%
Synthomer (SYNT) 297.40p -0.87%
Contour Global (GLO) 183.77p -0.66%
Marston's (MARS) 125.30p -0.63%
Rank Group (RNK) 168.84p -0.57%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 320.00p -0.50%