London open: Stocks muted after Friday's highs; Kingfisher slumps

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were muted in early trade on Monday, having closed at their highest level in more than a year on Friday. At 0825 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up just 0.1% at 7,934.64.

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The FTSE 100 is starting the week within sight of record highs, but is lacking fresh momentum in early trade. Optimism has been surging about the prospects for interest rate cuts and brighter economic horizons ahead, despite some uncertainty lingering about stubborn inflation in the US.

"Although stocks on Wall Street are hanging near record levels, they slipped on Friday, but the feel-good factor remains relatively strong for London-listed companies. Over the past week, the FTSE 100 has had a power surge which doesn't look set to reverse significantly. Investors have been eyeing up lower borrowing costs from the summer, amid an easing of inflationary pressures. The revision by global ratings agency Fitch about the sovereign credit outlook is another tailwind for the UK, with the outlook now 'stable' rather than 'negative, with the assessment that economic policy risks have eased."

In equity markets, B&Q owner Kingfisher lost ground after saying it expects lower annual profits in the current year as the home improvement market continued to lag behind demand for housing.

The company, which also owns the Brico depot chain in France, said it expects adjusted pre-tax profit of £490m to £550m compared with the £568m it reported for last year, down 25% on 2022/23.

Direct Line tumbled as it insisted it was confident in its standalone prospects after Belgium's Ageas said it would not be making an offer for the insurer following two failed attempts at engaging with the board.

National Express owner Mobico was under the cosh as it issued a profit warning and further delayed its annual results after an unexpected rebasing of German indices it uses to calculate energy costs.

Adjusted earnings before interest and tax are now expected to be at the upper end of a £160m to £175m range, compared with previous guidance of £175m - £185m.

On the upside, Ferrexpo shot higher as it said operations at its Ukrainian subsidiary, FPM, have been performing well and there has been no disruption to the production and sale of its products. It said production volumes for the month of February were the highest since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,934.64 0.05% FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,589.13 -0.69% techMARK (TASX) 4,502.15 -0.35%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Sage Group (SGE) 1,280.00p 1.47% 3i Group (III) 2,800.00p 1.41% Fresnillo (FRES) 460.30p 1.16% BP (BP.) 503.20p 0.87% Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,030.00p 0.66% BAE Systems (BA.) 1,372.50p 0.66% Shell (SHEL) 2,648.50p 0.63% Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,628.00p 0.61% Anglo American (AAL) 1,941.00p 0.60% DCC (CDI) (DCC) 5,718.00p 0.60%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Kingfisher (KGF) 226.30p -3.12% Ocado Group (OCDO) 463.40p -1.05% Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 10,500.00p -0.90% Persimmon (PSN) 1,325.00p -0.82% Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 4,374.00p -0.73% Unite Group (UTG) 966.50p -0.67% Beazley (BEZ) 684.50p -0.65% Next (NXT) 9,132.00p -0.65% Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 873.60p -0.59% Prudential (PRU) 773.80p -0.59%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Ferrexpo (FXPO) 47.40p 9.67% Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 642.50p 2.15% Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 235.00p 1.73% NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited Red (NESF) 72.85p 1.32% Sirius Real Estate Ltd. (SRE) 93.20p 1.19% QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 367.40p 1.10% Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 336.40p 0.90% Carnival (CCL) 1,235.00p 0.86% Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,469.00p 0.75% Hill and Smith (HILS) 1,920.00p 0.73%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Mobico Group (MCG) 65.85p -7.84% Bridgepoint Group (Reg S) (BPT) 265.20p -4.19% Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 2,000.00p -4.08% Helios Towers (HTWS) 85.00p -3.41% Coats Group (COA) 78.30p -3.09% Foresight Group Holdings Limited NPV (FSG) 440.00p -3.08% Fidelity Emerging Markets Limited Ptg NPV (FEML) 650.00p -2.88% Genus (GNS) 1,786.00p -2.46% Hays (HAS) 91.80p -2.44% Dunelm Group (DNLM) 1,056.00p -2.40%