London open: Stocks edge up as investors mull Nvidia results

(Sharecast News) - London stocks edged up in early trade on Thursday as investors mulled results from US chip maker Nvidia. At 0910 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 8,361.37.

Commenting on Nvidia's results, Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "Despite an update which forecast third-quarter revenues of $32.5 billion, which exceeded estimates, the shares fell by 2% during the session and by 3% in extended trade. The company is facing increasingly higher hurdles to please investors, following a stellar share price rise which includes a hike of more than 160% this year alone.

"Caution ahead of the group's numbers inevitably washed through to the more tech-exposed S&P500 and Nasdaq indices, given Nvidia's disproportionate weighting, with some weakness in fellow 'Magnificent Seven' constituents such as Apple, Amazon and Microsoft.

"Even so, fears of a major disappointment seem to have been averted following the update, with attention now turning to the latest GDP growth estimate today and the latest inflation reading in the form of the Personal Consumption Expenditures index tomorrow.

"This should inform investors as to whether the widely expected rate cut in September remains on track, with the likelihood of a 0.25% reduction remaining in the driving seat. Ahead of these numbers and notwithstanding yesterday's nervous session, the main indices remain in rude health in the year to date, with rises of 9% for the Dow Jones and of 17% for both the S&P500 and Nasdaq."

In equity markets, Premier Inn owner Whitbread was the top gainer on the FTSE 100 after an upgrade to 'outperform' by Bernstein.

Close Brothers surged after an upgrade to 'outperform' at RBC Capital Markets, while British Gas owner Centrica was boosted by an upgrade to 'buy' at Jefferies.

GSK rose as it said the European Commission has approved Arexvy, the first respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, for adults aged 50 to 59 at increased risk due to underlying medical conditions.

Drax was in the black as Ofgem closed its probe into the company's biomass profiling data after investigating whether or not the power station group failed to meet sustainability criteria of so-called Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs).

IG Group lost ground after Tom Sosnoff and Scott Sheridan sold 6.5m shares in the company in a placing to a limited number of institutional investors. The placing represents around 1.8% of the existing share capital in the company.

Sosnoff and Sheridan were co-founders of US online brokerage and trading education platform Tastytrade, which was acquired by IG in 2021 for $1bn.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 8,361.37 0.21% FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,063.00 -0.02% techMARK (TASX) 4,903.84 0.16%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Whitbread (WTB) 2,923.00p 2.97% JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 139.95p 1.86% Burberry Group (BRBY) 695.60p 1.77% Weir Group (WEIR) 1,980.00p 1.54% Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,819.00p 1.34% B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 442.60p 1.10% Barclays (BARC) 225.95p 1.05% Bunzl (BNZL) 3,502.00p 1.04% Standard Chartered (STAN) 774.40p 0.91% Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,292.00p 0.88%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

LondonMetric Property (LMP) 202.40p -1.46% Smith (DS) (SMDS) 475.20p -0.63% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 497.70p -0.56% Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 4,387.00p -0.52% Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,810.00p -0.50% Glencore (GLEN) 403.95p -0.30% British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,801.00p -0.28% Admiral Group (ADM) 2,920.00p -0.24% National Grid (NG.) 1,002.50p -0.20% Severn Trent (SVT) 2,528.00p -0.20%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Close Brothers Group (CBG) 528.00p 7.88% Me Group International (MEGP) 195.00p 2.31% Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,341.00p 1.82% Harbour Energy (HBR) 305.30p 1.67% Witan Inv Trust (WTAN) 269.50p 1.32% Carnival (CCL) 1,146.00p 1.28% Murray Income Trust (MUT) 879.00p 1.03% Victrex plc (VCT) 1,032.00p 0.98% Hill and Smith (HILS) 2,125.00p 0.95% Pets at Home Group (PETS) 305.20p 0.93%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Zigup (ZIG) 399.50p -4.43% Auction Technology Group (ATG) 400.00p -2.79% Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 274.00p -2.32% IG Group Holdings (IGG) 969.50p -2.22% Hochschild Mining (HOC) 172.40p -2.14% TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 3,030.00p -2.10% Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 2,604.00p -1.95% Foresight Group Holdings Limited NPV (FSG) 522.00p -1.92% Henderson Smaller Companies Inv Trust (HSL) 900.00p -1.85% Babcock International Group (BAB) 530.00p -1.51%