London open: Stocks rise following strong gains in the US, Japan

(Sharecast News) - Stocks in London began the session with modest gains following a strong advance on Wall Street during the previous session. Commenting on the triggers behind the strength seen in US stocks the day before, Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, cited the strong readings on consumer confidence and new home sales published Stateside on Tuesday.

"If the US economy is starting to struggle then there is little evidence of that in yesterday's numbers, which in turn helped drive a strong finish for US markets, led by the Nasdaq 100," he said.

As of 0843 BST, the FTSE-100 was climbing 31 points to 7,492.76, alongside a 0.38% gain on the second-tier index to 18,122.56.

In focus for Wednesday, at 1430 BST the heads of the Bank of England, US Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of Japan were all due to participate on a panel at the ECB's annual policy-making forum in Sintra, Portugal.

When it came to the ECB, Reuters reported that of seven rate-setters at Sintra, "most" were anticipating further rate hikes at both the July and September meetings.

And overnight it was reported that Chinese industrial profits plummeted at a year-to-date pace of 18.8%, following a 20.6% drop in April.

Commenting on the outlook for industrial profits in the Asian giant, Duncan Wrigley, chief China+ economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "Exports are now falling again, and the H2 global outlook is dismal.

"China is likely to add limited fiscal and quasi-fiscal stimulus to the recent 10bp lending rate cuts, but this will merely keep growth on track for a relatively conservative "about 5%" GDP growth target."

Investors also took note of a warning from Japanese officials against "excessive foreign exchange moves", in likely reference to recent weakness in the yen.

It was also reported that the Biden administration was mulling fresh curbs on exports to China of chips used for artificial intelligence.

That report appeared to weigh on Chinese stocks, although Japan's Nikkei-225 climbed 2.02%.

No major economic releases were scheduled in the UK on Wednesday.

At 0930 BST, Bank of England chief economist, Huw Pill, was due to deliver a speech in Sintra on the "Lessons from recent experiences in macroeconomic forecasting".

Thames Water hits the skids

The UK government has reportedly started drawing up plans to temporarily take beleaguered utility Thames Water back into public ownership amid fears it cannot service its £14bn debt pile a day after its chief executive quit. Local media reported that industry regulator Ofwat and government ministers were holding talks about potentially placing Thames Water into a special administration regime (SAR) similar to that used after the collapse of energy supplier Bulb in 2021.

Diversified Energy said it had sold some of its non-core, non-operated US assets for $40m. The assets include approximately 200 net, non-operated wells producing around 3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. The deal represents an approximate four times next 12 months cash flow multiple and includes around 85,000 associated net acres located in Oklahoma and Texas.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,482.85 0.29% FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,126.74 0.40% techMARK (TASX) 4,447.70 0.38%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Sage Group (SGE) 908.80p 4.05% CRH (CDI) (CRH) 4,282.00p 1.88% Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 10,245.00p 1.59% Abrdn (ABDN) 212.80p 1.58% Halma (HLMA) 2,265.00p 1.52% Experian (EXPN) 2,965.00p 1.33% Prudential (PRU) 1,106.50p 1.24% Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,728.00p 1.11% Vodafone Group (VOD) 73.44p 1.09% Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,394.00p 1.01%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Admiral Group (ADM) 2,092.00p -2.15% Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,859.00p -0.91% Ocado Group (OCDO) 553.60p -0.75% Haleon (HLN) 317.00p -0.72% Anglo American (AAL) 2,266.00p -0.61% Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 5,984.00p -0.53% Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 42.29p -0.51% Persimmon (PSN) 1,040.00p -0.48% Glencore (GLEN) 438.40p -0.43% Fresnillo (FRES) 604.20p -0.43%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Carnival (CCL) 1,138.00p 5.32% Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 2,880.00p 3.04% Coats Group (COA) 70.20p 1.89% Bridgepoint Group (Reg S) (BPT) 200.40p 1.88% IntegraFin Holding (IHP) 243.20p 1.84% Balanced Commercial Property Trust Limited (BCPT) 67.00p 1.82% Ashmore Group (ASHM) 205.40p 1.78% Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited NPV (SONG) 81.00p 1.76% Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 1,340.00p 1.75% WH Smith (SMWH) 1,537.00p 1.72%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Hammerson (HMSO) 24.18p -1.06% CMC Markets (CMCX) 154.00p -1.03% Synthomer (SYNT) 72.05p -0.96% Ibstock (IBST) 141.50p -0.91% Darktrace (DARK) 307.00p -0.84% Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 209.00p -0.71% British Land Company (BLND) 295.20p -0.71% Indivior (INDV) 1,767.00p -0.67% NCC Group (NCC) 91.30p -0.65% Worldwide Healthcare Trust (WWH) 3,100.00p -0.64%