London midday: FTSE maintains small gains as BoE lifts rates to 1.75%

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were still a touch higher by midday on Thursday after the Bank of England announced its biggest rate hike since 1995 as it looks to tackle surging inflation. The FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 7,459.09 and sterling was 0.1% weaker against the dollar, giving up earlier gains, after the BoE lifted rates by 50 basis points to 1.75%. This marked the sixth increase in a row and was in line with economists' expectations.

The Monetary Policy Committed voted 8-1 for the rate rise, with only Silvana Tenreyro opting for a smaller rise to 1.5%.

In equity markets, commodity trading and mining company Glencore rallied as it it posted a massive $10.3bn rise in interim core profits on the back of record prices for coal and gas and said it would return $4.5bn to shareholders.

ConvaTec racked up strong gains after the maker of medical products said it was on track to deliver full-year guidance despite a drop in first-half operating profit.

Gold miner Centamin also shone as its first-half results met analysts' expectations, while Phoenix Group rose after saying it was buying closed book UK life insurance company Sun Life for £248m.

Next was on the front foot after the retailer lifted its full-year profit guidance by £10m to £860m.

On the downside, Rolls-Royce slid after the engine maker reported a decline in first-half underlying but backed its full-year guidance amid expectations of an improvement in the civil aerospace division

Hikma Pharmaceuticals was under the cosh after it cut its revenue guidance for the Generics business to between $650m and $675m from between $710m and $750m.

Mondi was also down even as the paper and packaging group reported a sharp rise in interim profits on the back of higher prices due to reduced timber supplies.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,459.09 0.18% FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,190.52 0.86% techMARK (TASX) 4,365.97 0.54%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Ocado Group (OCDO) 980.00p 7.43% Entain (ENT) 1,302.00p 4.87% Admiral Group (ADM) 1,986.00p 3.01% Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 8,594.00p 2.82% Glencore (GLEN) 458.55p 2.80% Whitbread (WTB) 2,645.00p 2.76% JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 135.05p 2.58% Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,077.00p 2.57% Fresnillo (FRES) 693.60p 2.51% Aveva Group (AVV) 2,397.00p 2.44%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 82.53p -9.10% Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,635.50p -7.18% Mondi (MNDI) 1,534.00p -4.72% Informa (INF) 578.40p -3.76% BT Group (BT.A) 155.45p -3.75% Airtel Africa (AAF) 149.10p -3.31% Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 6,688.00p -1.76% Relx plc (REL) 2,395.00p -1.52% Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 124.80p -1.46% Compass Group (CPG) 1,918.50p -1.21%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Convatec Group (CTEC) 255.20p 10.86% TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 144.10p 5.80% Centamin (DI) (CEY) 88.92p 5.43% Ascential (ASCL) 245.60p 5.32% 888 Holdings (DI) (888) 156.90p 5.16% Softcat (SCT) 1,431.00p 4.38% Pantheon International (PIN) 275.00p 4.36% Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 906.40p 4.18% Carnival (CCL) 734.60p 3.99% Pets at Home Group (PETS) 347.60p 3.95%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Abrdn Private Equity Opportunities Trust (APEO) 444.00p -4.10% Babcock International Group (BAB) 341.00p -3.56% CLS Holdings (CLI) 203.00p -2.40% BH Macro Ltd. GBP Shares (BHMG) 4,355.00p -2.35% QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 374.00p -2.15% Schroder Oriental Income Fund Ltd. (SOI) 254.50p -2.12% Savills (SVS) 1,130.00p -2.08% Redrow (RDW) 570.00p -1.55% Chemring Group (CHG) 342.00p -1.44% Ibstock (IBST) 205.00p -1.25%