UK shares started higher on Thursday as sentiment continued to rise following more constructive tariff talks between the US and China.
At 9.30am the FTSE 100 was 25 points, or 0.34%, to the good at 7,362, while the FTSE 250 was 55 points higher at 20,037.
Miners were firm across the board after the US agreed to delay tariffs on $250bn of Chinese imports. Banking shares gave back some their gains from earlier in the week.
MORRISONS TOPS FTSE LEADER BOARD
Shares in supermarket chain Morrison (MRW) rally more than 3% to 200.3p, topping the FTSE 100 leader board, after the company said that it had maintained momentum in its turnaround and seen ‘robust progress’ in sales and profit, up 5% in the first half.
Analysts have speculated that it could be subject to a takeover bid, given the weak pound making the shares look cheaper to an overseas buyer.
For the six months to 4 August the Bradford-based company made a pre-tax profit before one-off items of £198m. That compared to analysts' average forecast of £192m.
It will also pay a special dividend of 2p per share, taking the interim pay-out to 3.93p.
Morrisons also reported an extension of its deal with US online retail giant Amazon, one that will expand its distribution over many more UK cities on a multi-year partnership.
At the other end of the spectrum, shares in global engineering company Ricardo (RCDO) dropped 5% to 664p after reporting a fall in profit before tax of 1% to £37m.
Wealth management group Brooks Macdonald (BRK) reported an impressive 22.4% growth in annual pre-tax profit to £8.3m as total discretionary funds under management climbed 6.8% to £13.2bn and revenue rose 7.3% to £107.3m. Its shares were on the charge, up 1.5% to £19.90.
Underlying profit margin rose to 19.6% from 18.8% as actions announced in January had ‘started to streamline the business, deliver efficiencies and make Brooks Macdonald easier to do business with,’ the company said.
The total dividend increased by 8.5% to 51.0p from 47.0p last year.
SHIPS DEAL WITH MOD
Aerospace and Defence company Babcock (BAB) said it had been selected by the UK Ministry of Defence as the preferred bidder to deliver its newest fleet of warships, giving the shares a 1.5% boost to 546p.
The Type 31 general-purpose frigate programme would provide the UK with a fleet of five ships, at an average production cost of £250m per ship, the company said.
Work on the fleet of five ships would begin immediately following formal contract award later this financial year, with detailed design work to start now and manufacture commencing in 2021 and concluding in 2027, the company added.
Shares in drug discovery company Silence Therapeutics (SLN) were 2.3% weaker at 188.5p after reporting a £8.2m loss for the six months ended 30 June.
Shares in on-line fashion retailer N Brown (BWNG) were down 6% after the company updated the market on its PPI situation, saying that, in-line with the wider industry it had seen a significant rise in requests and complaints.
The company said, ‘In August N Brown received more than 10 times the average volume of PPI information requests and complaints seen in the months prior to this with c.110,000 in the month and more than 40,000 in the final week before the deadline.’
