London open: FTSE dips despite fresh high for S&P 500

(Sharecast News) - London stocks nudged a smidgen lower in early trade on Friday, failing to make any gains despite a fresh high for the S&P 500 after another soft US inflation print eased concerns about a rate hike in September.

At 0840 BST, the FTSE 100 was down 0.1% at 10,763.08.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said: "The S&P500 traded at a fresh record high as this week's US inflation data showed easing in the July numbers. On Wednesday, the consumer price index showed a retreat in headline and core CPI to 3.4% and 2.5% y-o-y, respectively, while Thursday's producer price index showed that headline PPI fell sharply to 4.7% y-o-y in July, down from 5.5% a month earlier and lower than the 4.9% pencilled in by analysts. Core PPI came in at 4.2%.

"I see two issues with the numbers. First, they remain consistent with inflation running comfortably above the Federal Reserve's (Fed) official 2% target. No one knows if the Fed under its new Governor Warsh will continue to look at the traditional metrics to gauge where rates are going, but at current levels, US inflation remains too high to ignore. Kevin Warsh himself had expressed concern about US inflation running persistently above target for half a decade in his first press conference (although I reckon that things may have changed since then!)

"And two, the easing in price pressures was clearly driven by a sharp retreat in oil prices on Middle East hopes that month. Since then, tensions have flared up, pushing oil prices higher.

"As such, this week's optimism looks somewhat disconnected from reality."

In equity markets, Sage Group was lifted to the top of the FTSE 100 by a Reuters report suggesting that private equity firm Silver Lake is in talks to buy US IT software provider Workday in a deal that would rank among the largest software buyouts in history.

Experian and Relx also gained.

Aviva nudged higher as the insurer reported a 24% jump in first-half operating profit to £1.33bn and said it was making "very good" progress with the integration of Direct Line.

Diversified Energy edged up as it confirmed it has had preliminary discussions about a possible acquisition of oil and gas company Birch Resources. Talks are ongoing and remain at an early stage and no agreement has been reached, it said.

The statement came after Bloomberg reported that Diversified was in advanced talks to buy Elliott Investment Management-backed Birch for more than $1.7bn in cash.

Michael Page shot to the top of the FTSE 250 after an upgrade to 'buy' at UBS.

On the downside, GB Group tumbled as it cut revenue guidance after secondquarter trading in its Americas Identity unit weakened, with higherthanexpected volume attrition at several key customers holding back growth.

The company now expects FY27 revenuegrowth guidance of 1-3%, down from midsingledigit expectations and warned that, given normal salescycle timing, the shortfall is unlikely to be recovered within the current financial year.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 10,763.08 -0.09%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 24,887.27 0.20%

techMARK (TASX) 6,154.54 0.47%

FTSE 100 - Risers

The Sage Group (SGE) 1,055.00p 3.99%

Experian (EXPN) 2,917.00p 3.81%

Relx plc (REL) 2,559.00p 2.81%

Autotrader Group (AUTO) 538.80p 2.43%

Computacenter (CCC) 5,055.00p 2.37%

Entain (ENT) 558.20p 2.31%

Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,202.50p 1.78%

ICG (ICG) 2,082.00p 1.76%

Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 3,938.00p 1.76%

Informa (INF) 935.40p 1.45%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Antofagasta (ANTO) 3,612.00p -3.83%

Fresnillo (FRES) 2,812.00p -2.26%

Glencore (GLEN) 548.40p -1.98%

Anglo American (AAL) 3,848.00p -1.38%

Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 384.90p -1.28%

GSK (GSK) 1,836.50p -1.10%

Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,094.50p -1.04%

Rio Tinto (RIO) 7,084.00p -1.02%

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (DI) (CCEP) 7,875.00p -0.94%

AstraZeneca (AZN) 11,582.00p -0.87%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Michael Page (PAGE) 209.00p 7.18%

Trustpilot Group (TRST) 286.40p 3.84%

Kainos Group (KNOS) 946.50p 3.61%

Hays (HAS) 67.90p 3.51%

Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 213.00p 3.19%

Rightmove (RMV) 505.00p 3.01%

HGCapital Trust (HGT) 419.50p 2.82%

Savills (SVS) 1,118.00p 2.57%

Chemring Group (CHG) 635.50p 2.50%

Ithaca Energy (ITH) 242.80p 2.19%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

GB Group (GBG) 179.20p -23.28%

Hochschild Mining (HOC) 494.60p -2.71%

Raspberry PI Holdings (RPI) 663.50p -2.40%

BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 941.00p -2.39%

Schroder Asia Pacific Fund (SDP) 824.00p -2.14%

Endeavour Mining (EDV) 4,024.00p -1.87%

Pan African Resources (PAF) 105.00p -1.87%

Herald Investment Trust (HRI) 3,010.00p -1.63%

Ceres Power Holdings (CWR) 459.80p -1.57%

Seraphim Space Investment Trust (SSIT) 184.00p -1.50%