London open: Stocks rise as investors digest UK jobs data

(Sharecast News) - London stocks rose in early trade on Tuesday following a late bounce on Wall Street, as investors mulled the latest UK jobs data. At 0835 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.4% at 7,542.15.

Figures released earlier by the Office for National Statistics showed that average total pay including bonuses rose 5.1% between April and June, with regular pay excluding bonuses up 4.7%. However, adjusted for inflation, total pay fell 2.5% and regular pay was down by a record 3%.

Meanwhile, job vacancies in the three months to the end of July fell for the first time in two years, dropping by 19,800 to 1.27m. Vacancies remain at historically high levels, but this marked the first quarterly fall since the three months to August 2020.

The unemployment rate held steady in the three months to June at 3.8%.

Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: "The number of people in work grew in the second quarter of 2022, whilst the headline rates of unemployment and of people neither working nor looking for a job were little changed.

"Meanwhile, the total number of hours worked each week appears to have stabilised very slightly below pre-pandemic levels.

"Redundancies are still at very low levels. However, although the number of job vacancies remains historically very high, it fell for the first time since the summer of 2020.

"The real value of pay continues to fall. Excluding bonuses, it is still dropping faster than at any time since comparable records began in 2001."

In equity markets, Australian mining giant BHP rallied as it posted a large rise in annual profits on the back of soaring coal prices and said it would return almost $9bn to shareholders.

Cybersecurity firm Darktrace jumped to the top of the FTSE 250 after it said late on Monday that it was in early takeover talks with private equity firm Thoma Bravo.

Pipe maker Genuit slumped after it reported a fall in interim profits but maintained full-year guidance as revenues rose during the period due to a strong UK housing market.

Software company Sage nudged lower after saying it had bought Lockstep, a provider of cloud native technology that automates accounting workflows between companies, for an undisclosed sum.

Outside the FTSE 350, Ted Baker racked up strong gains after agreeing to be bought by Reebok owner Authentic Brands Group in a £211m deal.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,542.15 0.44% FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,391.02 0.04% techMARK (TASX) 4,407.88 0.43%

FTSE 100 - Risers

GSK (GSK) 1,439.60p 2.39% Centrica (CNA) 82.50p 1.90% Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,810.00p 1.57% Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 10,840.00p 1.45% Glencore (GLEN) 471.05p 1.41% BT Group (BT.A) 159.75p 1.36% Harbour Energy (HBR) 381.10p 1.30% BAE Systems (BA.) 791.20p 1.20% Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,144.00p 1.19% Anglo American (AAL) 2,933.50p 1.12%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 2,720.00p -1.09% Howden Joinery Group (HWDN) 661.20p -0.84% Rightmove (RMV) 650.00p -0.76% Experian (EXPN) 2,918.00p -0.71% Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 976.00p -0.71% Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,646.00p -0.69% Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 11,445.00p -0.52% Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,059.50p -0.47% SEGRO (SGRO) 1,077.50p -0.46% Aveva Group (AVV) 2,483.00p -0.44%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Darktrace (DARK) 485.00p 16.92% Premier Foods (PFD) 120.00p 2.92% Bank of Georgia Group (BGEO) 1,878.00p 2.74% Serco Group (SRP) 179.70p 2.57% Provident Financial (PFG) 193.60p 2.43% WH Smith (SMWH) 1,553.50p 2.30% Essentra (ESNT) 254.50p 2.21% TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 1,696.00p 1.56% Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 895.50p 1.30% Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 137.10p 1.11%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Genuit Group (GEN) 403.50p -4.04% Bridgepoint Group (Reg S) (BPT) 271.00p -3.76% Capricorn Energy (CNE) 228.20p -2.48% Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 467.40p -2.34% Network International Holdings (NETW) 235.80p -2.32% Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 2,210.00p -2.00% Auction Technology Group (ATG) 880.00p -1.90% Dr. Martens (DOCS) 260.20p -1.59% Savills (SVS) 1,045.00p -1.42% Tullow Oil (TLW) 49.64p -1.41%