(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened higher on Tuesday, supported by travel stocks, oil majors and miners, and for now shaking off worries about possible tariffs during the Trump-era and any nerves ahead of US jobs data.
The FTSE 100 index rose 48.97 points, 0.6%, at 8,361.86. The FTSE 250 added 103.70 points, 0.5%, at 20,872.75, and the AIM All-Share rose 2.54 point, 0.4%, at 735.58.
The Cboe UK 100 added 0.7% at 840.00, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.6% at 18,358.92, and the Cboe Small Companies gained 0.1% to 15,894.73.
The DAX 40 in Frankfurt added 0.4%, topping 20,000 points for the first time, while the CAC 40 sprung to life after a slow start to the week, setting aside French political uncertainty for now. The Paris benchmark was up 1.0%.
Supporting the FTSE 100, Glencore rose 2.3% while Asia-focused lenders HSBC and Standard Chartered added 1.7% and 1.2%. An improved reading of the manufacturing sector on Monday lifted optimism over the Chinese economy, which the trio are exposed to.
easyJet rose 3.3% in a strong take-off for travel shares on Tuesday. Wizz Air rose 3.0% as it reported passenger growth for November. On the Beach rallied 14% on strong earnings and a new buyback.
BP and Shell rose 1.6% and 1.3%, tracking Brent higher. Brent oil was quoted at USD72.37 a barrel early Tuesday, up from USD71.85 at the time of the European equities close on Monday.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 shot up 1.9%, supported by semiconductor stocks on Tuesday. In China, the Shanghai Composite added 0.4%, and the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong rose 1.0%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney rose 0.6%.
Over in New York on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%. The S&P 500 added 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite surged 1.0%. The S&P and Nasdaq achieving record closing highs.
The pound was quoted at USD1.2691, moving higher from USD1.2643 at the time of the London equities close on Monday. The euro stood at USD1.0523, climbing from USD1.0486. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY149.87, a rise from JPY149.24.
Analysts at ING commented: "French political drama sent EUR/USD below 1.05 yesterday. Rate spreads have pushed out to the wides of the year as the market assumes that pressure is only going to grow on the ECB for rate cuts if governments in both France and Germany are out of order.
"EUR/USD may not need to fall much further from here at the moment. And indeed there is some upside risk if US JOLTS data disappoints today. However, any EUR/USD correction may be limited to the 1.0550 area."
Tuesday's global economic diary sees the US job openings survey and labour turnover survey at 1500 GMT.
Analysts at Rabobank commented: "It may be the case that traders are simply waiting for this week's dump of US labour market data and Jerome Powell's comments tomorrow before adjusting their views on policy rates. Today brings the October JOLTS job openings figures, tomorrow we get the results of the ADP employment survey and Friday we will see the November non-farm payrolls report."
Gold traded at USD2,641.84 an ounce early Tuesday, largely unmoved from USD2,642.00 on Monday.
Back in London, SSP jumped 12%. It reported annual earnings growth and said trading in the early weeks of the new year has been "encouraging". The operator food outlets at travel locations reported pretax profit of GBP118.6 million in the year to September 30, an increase of 35% from GBP88.1 million. Revenue improved 14% to GBP3.43 billion from GBP3.01 billion.
The Upper Crust owner hailed "good performances" in the North America, UK and the Asia Pacific & Eastern Europe & Middle East groupings. However, it suffered a "disappointing performance in Continental Europe".
SSP trimmed its final dividend by 8.0% to 2.3p per share from 2.5p. It upped its total dividend to 3.5p from 2.5p, however.
CEO Patrick Coveney said: "SSP has strong fundamentals and benefits from the global travel market's sustained long-term growth trends. This was clearly visible in the FY24 performance in three of our four regional markets. However, Continental Europe performed below our expectations, which in turn impacted Group EPS and free cash flow. As we reach the next phase of our evolution post-Covid and with strong underlying growth across the group, our focus now is on driving greater value from a strengthened base. In Continental Europe, we are accelerating our profit recovery plan, in particular by building returns from the significant number of recently renewed and extended contracts. Across the wider group, our priorities remain on sharpening our performance culture to drive profitable growth and returns, so as to unlock the full potential of SSP."
So far in financial 2025, "trading has been encouraging". Revenue during the first eight weeks to November 25 is up 13% at constant currency.
Elsewhere among London's mid-caps, strong earnings lifted Victrex and Greencore. The duo were up 14% and 9.0%. discoverIE also shone, adding 9.8%.
Marston's rose 6.7% as the pub operator reported a swing to annual profit.
Revenue in the year to September 28 improved 3.0% to GBP898.6 million from GBP872.3 million, helping to push it pretax profit of GBP14.4 million from a loss of GBP30.6 million.
It said it is "very confident" about its outlook but noted October's autumn budget in the UK "puts some additional pressure on costs".
Like-for-like sales in the first six weeks of the new year grew by 3.9%.
On the decline, AIM listed SysGroup tumbled 30% as it warned on annual earnings.
The IT services, cybersecurity and cloud hosting provider said its pretax loss in the half-year to September 30 was largely unmoved at GBP1.1 million. Revenue fell 7.4% to GBP10.2 million from GBP11.0 million.
SysGroup expects revenue for the full-year will be shy of current market expectations, amid "longer-than-expected sales cycles".
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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