London open: Stocks steady ahead of data slew; Spire Healthcare jumps

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were steady in early trade on Friday as investors mulled disappointing retail sales figures and looked ahead to a slew of UK data releases. At 0840 GMT, the FTSE 100 was flat at 8,280.92.

Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The FTSE has held onto modest gains earned earlier this week, with few cues to take from global markets after the US took a breather to gather for Thanksgiving.

"Retail stocks will be on traders' minds today as shoppers trawl the aisles and their screens for Black Friday bargains."

Industry data out earlier showed that retail footfall tumbled in November, hit by stormy weather, weak consumer confidence and tough comparatives.

The latest Sensormatic footfall monitor from the British Retail Consortium showed total UK footfall fell 4.5% in November year-on-year.

Within that, high street footfall slid 3.7%, in retail parks it fell 1.1% - a notable reversal of October's 4.8% uplift - and in shopping centres there was a 6.1% slump.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, called the fall "disappointing".

She continued: "A later-than-usual Black Friday and low consumer confidence meant customers were hesitant to hit the shops. Some northern cities also suffered particularly badly due to Storm Bert, which caused travel disruption towards the end of the month."

The data covers the four weeks to 23 November, but the discount-heavy Black Friday falls on 29 November this year.

Dickinson continued: "Retailers remain hopeful that the Black Friday and Christmas sales will help to turn around the declining footfall seen through most of 2024."

Andy Sumpter, EMEA retail consultant for Sensormatic, said: "Consumer confidence remains volatile, perhaps not helped by post-Budget spending jitters and shoppers withholding festive purchases, opting instead to shop around for the best prices or hold out for further discounting.

"This lacklustre footfall will have come as a blow for many retailers, who would have been counting of getting early Christmas trading results under their belts before the start of advent.

"However, these figures do not include Black Friday and the Saturday of the Black Friday weekend - tipped as one of the busiest days for store shopping during peak trading - which will hopefully jump start seasonal shopping.

"Now all eyes turn to December, where retailers hope to make up for lost ground and turn around their festive fortunes."

Still to come, net lending, consumer credit and mortgage approvals data for October are all due at 0930 GMT.

In equity markets, broker notes were having an impact, with Anglo American the top gainer after an upgrade to 'buy' from 'hold' at Jefferies, which upped its price target to 2,850p from 2,500p.

IMI also rose sharply after an upgrade to 'buy' at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Spire Healthcare surged to the top of the FTSE 250 as a report in the Economic Times suggested that India's Narayana Health is in talks with the company's shareholders about buying a controlling stake.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Economic Times said Narayana plans to buy at least 51% of Spire via an open offer, but if Narayana manages to acquire around 75%, it may consider taking the company private.

TI Fluid Systems was in the black after it agreed to be bought by Canadian automotive parts maker ABC Technologies for £1.03bn. ABC, backed by private equity fund Apollo, said it would pay 200p a share in cash after having previous offers rejected. TI Fluid shares closed 5.7% higher at 189.2p on Thursday.

On the downside, defence firm BAE Systems slumped on the back of a downgrade to 'underperform' at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 8,280.92 0.00% FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,793.23 0.15% techMARK (TASX) 4,702.65 -0.10%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Anglo American (AAL) 2,452.50p 2.57% IMI (IMI) 1,807.00p 2.55% Fresnillo (FRES) 650.50p 1.96% Frasers Group (FRAS) 744.00p 0.81% Beazley (BEZ) 775.00p 0.78% Smith & Nephew (SN.) 992.40p 0.73% Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,683.50p 0.69% JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 104.10p 0.68% London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 11,250.00p 0.63% Glencore (GLEN) 376.00p 0.60%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

BAE Systems (BA.) 1,256.50p -2.60% Intertek Group (ITRK) 4,720.00p -0.76% SSE (SSE) 1,775.50p -0.53% Mondi (MNDI) 1,191.50p -0.46% Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,769.00p -0.45% Centrica (CNA) 127.95p -0.43% Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 4,192.00p -0.43% Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 944.40p -0.42% International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 259.60p -0.38% Spirax Group (SPX) 7,135.00p -0.35%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 233.50p 6.38% Close Brothers Group (CBG) 231.20p 4.71% Breedon Group (BREE) 480.00p 3.23% Helios Towers (HTWS) 102.00p 2.82% Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 86.10p 2.38% Ibstock (IBST) 191.40p 2.24% Computacenter (CCC) 2,280.00p 2.24% Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 229.40p 2.23% TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 193.20p 2.11% Spirent Communications (SPT) 175.00p 2.04%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

SThree (STEM) 341.50p -4.34% Primary Health Properties (PHP) 91.60p -3.93% QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 414.00p -3.77% Savills (SVS) 1,056.00p -2.04% TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 3,155.00p -2.02% Empiric Student Property (ESP) 86.50p -1.48% Bank of Georgia Group (BGEO) 4,925.00p -1.40% Foresight Solar Fund Limited (FSFL) 79.50p -1.36% Foresight Group Holdings Limited NPV (FSG) 415.00p -1.19% BlackRock Smaller Companies Trust (BRSC) 1,348.00p -1.17%