London close: Stocks end higher ahead of key US CPI data

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were in the black at the start of the week ahead of the release of what was being billed by analysts as a potentially key US consumer price report for January that was due out the next day.

"European markets have got the new week off to a positive start helped by further declines in natural gas prices, which have slipped to their lowest levels in almost 18 months on the European Netherlands TTF contract," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

"The FTSE100 has recovered after slipping below the 7,900 last week, and is on course for a new record close, with trading fairly subdued ahead of tomorrow's keenly awaited US CPI report."

The top-flight index notched up a fresh all-time high on an end of day basis, rising 0.83% to 7,947.60.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "The FTSE 100 defied weak markets in Asia overnight and selling on Wall Street on Friday to trade higher on Monday morning as investors await key US and UK inflation data later this week.

"Back above the 7,900 mark and within striking distance of its recent all-time highs the index continues to build on its gains of recent months, but the confidence that remains is about as fragile as a fine China cup.

"For the time being investors have largely been happy to ride out shocks like unexpectedly strong economic data from the US, good news which could turn out to be bad if it caused the Fed to go back on the offensive with interest rates, however a renewed uptick in prices on both sides of the Atlantic could shatter sentiment.

"The expectation is inflation will have eased slightly when the US and UK report tomorrow and Wednesday respectively."

On the corporate front, there was no FTSE 350 news of note out so broker notes were providing most of the action.

Weir Group and Smiths were high risers after Goldman Sachs reinstated coverage of the stocks at 'buy'.

On the downside, housebuilders slid after a slew of rating downgrades by Deutsche Bank, with Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments, Crest Nicholson and Redrow all down.

Water companies Severn Trent and Pennon were also in focus after downgrades to 'sector perform' from 'outperform' at RBC Capital Markets, while Network International was hit by a downgrade to 'equalweight' at Barclays.

Outside the FTSE 350, Kape Technologies surged after saying it had received a $1.51bn (£1.25bn) takeover offer from its largest shareholder, Teddy Sagi.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,947.60 0.83% FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,124.52 0.47% techMARK (TASX) 4,566.79 0.66%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 11,995.00p 3.23% Unilever (ULVR) 4,262.00p 3.13% Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 2,990.00p 2.57% Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,712.00p 2.24% Abrdn (ABDN) 211.00p 2.18% Vodafone Group (VOD) 94.00p 2.09% Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 5,790.00p 2.08% Croda International (CRDA) 6,842.00p 1.97% Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 935.80p 1.94% Pearson (PSON) 906.20p 1.91%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Persimmon (PSN) 1,436.00p -3.69% Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 118.10p -3.00% Barratt Developments (BDEV) 459.90p -2.65% Ocado Group (OCDO) 618.60p -2.61% Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 4,217.00p -1.75% BT Group (BT.A) 134.10p -1.40% Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,234.00p -0.53% WPP (WPP) 983.60p -0.47% BP (BP.) 557.40p -0.46% Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 53.08p -0.41%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Molten Ventures (GROW) 404.20p 6.82% Darktrace (DARK) 248.60p 3.84% NB Private Equity Partners Ltd. (NBPE) 1,690.00p 3.68% BH Macro Ltd. GBP Shares (BHMG) 449.00p 3.46% National Express Group (NEX) 132.00p 3.45% Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 2,734.00p 3.29% Currys (CURY) 72.65p 3.05% Ashmore Group (ASHM) 278.40p 3.03% Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) 511.00p 2.94% Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 187.70p 2.88%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 234.60p -5.26% NCC Group (NCC) 180.00p -4.96% Bellway (BWY) 2,149.00p -4.06% Redrow (RDW) 510.50p -3.77% Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 113.00p -3.09% Vistry Group (VTY) 760.50p -3.00% TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 170.80p -2.84% Harbour Energy (HBR) 315.90p -2.53% ITV (ITV) 86.36p -2.53% Network International Holdings (NETW) 271.20p -2.45%