London open: FTSE edges higher ahead of payrolls

(Sharecast News) - London stocks edged higher in early trade on Friday as investors eyed the latest US non-farm payrolls report. At 0820 GMT, the FTSE 100 was 0.3% firmer at 7,654.45.

The payrolls report is due at 1330 GMT, along with the unemployment rate and average earnings. Investors will also be eyeing the S&P Global UK construction PMI for December at 0930 GMT and the latest eurozone inflation data at 1000 GMT.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Today's December number is expected to show a slowdown to 203k; however, this could be understating things given that most of the estimates in recent months have come in below the actual numbers.

"What is slightly more worrying is the inability of the participation rate to show any signs of increasing, falling back to its lows of the year at 62.1%, while unemployment rose to 3.7%. No changes are expected to either of these.

"Nonetheless, the attention today will be less on the headline numbers but on how many services jobs are added, as well as the pace of any wage gains, as some FOMC members fret about the prospect of a wage price spiral."

On home shores, the latest figures from Halifax showed that house prices fell in December for the fourth month in a row amid rising interest rates.

House prices declined by 1.5% on the month following a 2.4% drop in November. On the year, meanwhile, house prices rose 2% in December following a 4.6% increase the month before, with the rate of growth slowing in all nations and regions.

The price of a house now stands at £281,272, down from £285,425 in November.

Kim Kinnaird, director at Halifax, said: "As we've seen over the past few months, uncertainties about the extent to which cost of living increases will impact household bills, alongside rising interest rates, is leading to an overall slowing of the market.

"The housing market was a mixed picture in 2022. We saw rapid house price growth during the first six months, followed by a plateau in the summer before prices began to fall from September, as the impact of cost-of-living pressures, coupled with a rising rates environment, began to take effect on household finances and demand."

Looking ahead, Kinnaird said prices were expected to fall 8% over the course of this year.

"As we enter 2023, the housing market will continue to be impacted by the wider economic environment and, as buyers and sellers remain cautious, we expect there will be a reduction in both supply and demand overall," she said.

"It's important to recognise that a drop of 8% would mean the cost of the average property returning to April 2021 prices, which still remains significantly above pre-pandemic levels."

In equity markets, miners were among the top performers as metals prices rose, with Anglo American, Glencore, Rio and Antofagasta all higher.

Shell ticked up as the oil giant said it expects to pay around $2bn in windfall tax for the final quarter of 2022.

The company said that fourth-quarter results from the integrated gas segment were set to be "significantly higher" than in Q3. It also said that liquefied natural gas production will take a hit from longer-than-expected plant outages in Australia.

Elsewhere, shipping services firm Clarkson surged as it said results for the year to the end of December were set to be ahead of current market expectations.

In a very brief statement, the company hailed strong trading throughout the final quarter, particularly from the broking division. It now expects underlying pre-tax profit of no less than £98m.

Components maker Essentra was in the red after saying it expects annual profits to be in line with expectations despite economic headwinds globally.

In broker note action, Next was knocked lower by a downgrade to 'underperform' at Credit Suisse, while easyJet was hit by a downgrade to 'neutral' at Goldman Sachs.

Rentokil was sharply lower after an initiation at 'underperform' by Exane.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,654.45 0.28% FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,467.96 0.02% techMARK (TASX) 4,506.01 0.43%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Anglo American (AAL) 3,393.00p 2.23% Glencore (GLEN) 523.80p 1.91% BAE Systems (BA.) 860.20p 1.49% Rio Tinto (RIO) 6,024.00p 1.41% Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,859.00p 1.36% Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,632.00p 1.33% Whitbread (WTB) 2,794.00p 1.31% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 103.88p 1.19% BP (BP.) 476.90p 1.09% Barratt Developments (BDEV) 434.80p 1.00%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Rentokil Initial (RTO) 505.80p -2.81% Standard Chartered (STAN) 691.60p -1.93% SEGRO (SGRO) 768.60p -1.71% Next (NXT) 6,426.00p -1.41% Centrica (CNA) 89.50p -1.21% DCC (CDI) (DCC) 4,279.00p -1.20% HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 560.40p -0.87% Abrdn (ABDN) 188.80p -0.84% Croda International (CRDA) 6,464.00p -0.80% Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 530.20p -0.79%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Just Group (JUST) 84.30p 2.37% Serco Group (SRP) 160.00p 2.37% Grafton Group Ut (CDI) (GFTU) 876.10p 2.23% 888 Holdings (DI) (888) 93.55p 2.13% Ferrexpo (FXPO) 169.50p 1.92% Games Workshop Group (GAW) 9,350.00p 1.69% BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 716.00p 1.42% Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 150.00p 1.35% Bytes Technology Group (BYIT) 385.00p 1.26% NCC Group (NCC) 210.00p 1.20%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

ASOS (ASC) 560.50p -2.86% easyJet (EZJ) 365.60p -2.66% Hilton Food Group (HFG) 566.00p -2.41% Tritax Eurobox (GBP) (EBOX) 63.00p -2.33% Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 196.60p -2.19% Chemring Group (CHG) 290.50p -2.02% Pagegroup (PAGE) 467.60p -1.97% Ascential (ASCL) 204.80p -1.82% Helios Towers (HTWS) 111.40p -1.50% Darktrace (DARK) 281.60p -1.19%