London midday: Stocks maintain gains ahead of Easter break

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were still firmer by midday on Thursday as investors shrugged off data confirming the UK fell into recession in the second half of last year. The FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 7,956.07, with trade fairly quiet as we headed towards the long Easter break.

Final figures released earlier by the Office for National Statistics showed that GDP contracted by 0.3% in the last three months of the year, unrevised from an earlier estimate. This followed a 0.1% contraction in the period from July to September.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said in response to the data: "Last year was tough as interest rates had to rise to bring down inflation, but we can see our plan is working.

"Inflation has fallen decisively from over 11% to 3.4%, the economy grew in January and real wages have increased for eight months in a row.

"Our cuts to National Insurance will boost growth by rewarding work and putting over £900 a year back into the average earner's pocket."

The figures failed to dent the mood, however.

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The ONS snapshot also shows that savings remained relatively high and real household disposable incomes increased in the last quarter of the year, adding to hopes that consumers' resilience has been rising and that the recession will have been a super-short one."

Looking ahead, Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said that even though markets will be closed on Friday, the US inflation report will be the subject of close scrutiny.

"The performance of markets over a successful opening quarter to the year has shown that investors are increasingly accepting that three rate cuts are the most likely outcome, rather than the several which had previously been pencilled in," he said.

"Some of this changing sentiment has come from the realisation that the general strength of the economy has reduced pressure on the Federal Reserve to ease monetary policy and indeed moving too soon to cut rates could do more harm than good in the longer term if they are not currently necessary."

In equity markets, JD Sports Fashion surged after saying it expects full-year profits to be within guidance of £915m to £935m. It said the current year would be "challenging" due to less product innovation and more discounting, but expects sales to pick up on the back of the Paris Olympics and European football finals in the summer.

Electrical retailer AO World rallied as it said FY24 adjusted pre-tax profit was set to be "at least" at the top end of the previously guided range of £28m to £33m as the core business continued to trade positively in the fourth quarter.

Spirent Communications racked up strong gains after Keysight Technologies reached a deal to buy the company for £1.16bn, outbidding US peer Viavi Solutions, which had already agreed to buy the telecoms group earlier this month.

Spirent said it is now recommending a 201.5p-per-share offer from Keysight, which represents a 26.5p or 15% premium to Viavi's offer.

On the downside, M&G, Prudential, Smith & Nephew, Taylor Wimpey, Moneysupermarket.com, Primary Health Properties, Travis Perkins, Ithaca Energy and Hargreaves Lansdown were all weaker as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,956.07 0.30% FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,866.59 0.28% techMARK (TASX) 4,528.20 0.62%

FTSE 100 - Risers

JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 127.20p 9.37% Fresnillo (FRES) 467.00p 2.19% Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 16,010.00p 2.14% Antofagasta (ANTO) 2,023.00p 1.91% International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 174.75p 1.90% Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,915.00p 1.83% Rightmove (RMV) 551.60p 1.66% WPP (WPP) 751.20p 1.54% HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 624.30p 1.51% Glencore (GLEN) 435.10p 1.48%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

M&G (MNG) 221.00p -5.88% Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,009.00p -3.31% Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 137.10p -2.25% Severn Trent (SVT) 2,506.00p -1.34% United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,033.50p -1.15% Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,487.00p -1.07% CRH (CDI) (CRH) 6,784.00p -0.99% London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 9,504.00p -0.92% SSE (SSE) 1,643.50p -0.87% Ocado Group (OCDO) 462.60p -0.84%

FTSE 250 - Risers

AO World (AO.) 102.90p 14.52% Spirent Communications (SPT) 199.40p 11.40% Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited NPV (SONG) 69.00p 8.32% TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 149.00p 4.05% Moonpig Group (MOON) 169.60p 3.35% W.A.G Payment Solutions (WPS) 68.00p 3.34% WH Smith (SMWH) 1,306.00p 3.16% Trustpilot Group (TRST) 197.50p 2.49% Mobico Group (MCG) 68.15p 2.02% Ashmore Group (ASHM) 198.80p 1.95%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Ithaca Energy (ITH) 135.80p -6.73% Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 219.20p -3.69% Playtech (PTEC) 458.00p -2.72% HGCapital Trust (HGT) 462.00p -2.01% Auction Technology Group (ATG) 621.00p -1.90% Primary Health Properties (PHP) 93.40p -1.68% Energean (ENOG) 1,091.00p -1.36% International Public Partnerships Ltd. (INPP) 124.00p -1.27% North Atlantic Smaller Companies Inv Trust (NAS) 3,560.00p -1.11% Pantheon International (PIN) 316.00p -1.10%