London midday: Stocks gain on news of ECB emergency meeting

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were rising moderately come midday Wednesday, buoyed by reports that the European Central Bank might be set to act to calm the storm sweeping across euro area bond markets and thanks to encouraging data out of China. Nevertheless, in the background traders were bracing for a possible 75 basis point interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve later in the day - which would mark its biggest rate hike since 1994.

At 1227 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 1.26% at 7,278.56.

Mid-morning news broke that the ECB had called an emergency meeting to discuss bringing forward plans to reinvest the proceeds from assets maturing under its pandemic assistance programme into euro area government debt to forestall so-called 'fragmentation' risks.

Over the preceding sessions, Italían 10-year government bond yields for instance had jumped past 4%, a level last seen during the euro area debt crisis in 2014.

As for the Fed, some market participants' expectations were that it would revert to 50bp hikes after Wednesday's hikes but the potential shift towards a more forceful approach had also rattled markets over the past few sessions.

In equity markets, Premier Inn owner Whitbread was the top performer on the FTSE 100 after it said first-quarter trading beat expectations, as demand continued to rebound following the worst of the pandemic.

Discount retailer B&M European Value was higher alongside following an upgrade to 'overweight' at Barclays.

LSE also racked up strong gains after an upgrade to 'buy' at UBS, which said the stock's current valuation offers "very favourable" risk/reward for one that can grow revenue at about 5% a year.

WH Smith rallied after saying it expects annual results to be at the upper end of expectations as it reported a surge in revenue over pre-Covid pandemic levels for the first time, driven by a recovery in the travel market.

On the downside, Abrdn was knocked lower by a downgrade to 'underperform' at Credit Suisse.

Chilean copper miner Antofagasta fell as it said that full-year production was set to be at the bottom end of guidance following a leak in the concentrate pipeline at the Los Pelambres mine, and subsequent shutdown.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,270.45 1.15% FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,299.72 1.34% techMARK (TASX) 4,244.44 0.99%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Whitbread (WTB) 2,711.00p 5.65% London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 7,092.00p 5.25% B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 379.80p 5.15% Ocado Group (OCDO) 825.00p 5.15% Smurfit Kappa Group (CDI) (SKG) 2,930.00p 4.31% Kingfisher (KGF) 243.70p 3.79% Barratt Developments (BDEV) 505.60p 3.78% Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 210.60p 3.59% Schroders (SDR) 2,720.00p 3.58% Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 716.40p 3.56%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Airtel Africa (AAF) 132.80p -6.61% Harbour Energy (HBR) 357.80p -1.54% Abrdn (ABDN) 167.00p -1.42% BP (BP.) 429.45p -1.26% Shell (SHEL) 2,279.50p -1.23% BAE Systems (BA.) 766.60p -1.06% Rentokil Initial (RTO) 453.20p 0.18% Intertek Group (ITRK) 4,241.00p 0.19% Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 6,004.00p 0.27% Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 514.80p 0.27%

FTSE 250 - Risers

WH Smith (SMWH) 1,457.00p 7.25% Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 142.60p 6.58% Ferrexpo (FXPO) 157.00p 5.72% Playtech (PTEC) 536.00p 5.72% Dr. Martens (DOCS) 250.40p 5.03% Cranswick (CWK) 3,064.00p 5.00% Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 960.00p 4.35% 888 Holdings (888) 184.90p 4.23% Urban Logistics Reit (SHED) 170.50p 3.96% NB Private Equity Partners Ltd. (NBPE) 1,350.00p 3.85%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Auction Technology Group (ATG) 825.00p -3.40% Wood Group (John) (WG.) 188.95p -3.10% Discoverie Group (DSCV) 687.00p -2.41% Energean (ENOG) 1,289.00p -1.38% Ascential (ASCL) 258.80p -1.30% Abrdn Private Equity Opportunities Trust (APEO) 470.00p -1.26% Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 134.00p -1.03% Mediclinic International (MDC) 443.60p -1.03% Serco Group (SRP) 172.80p -0.97% CMC Markets (CMCX) 265.00p -0.93%