London midday: Stocks maintain gains; Entain surges on update

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were still firmly in the black by midday on Monday, recovering from heavy losses at the end of last week on the back of a disappointing US non-farm payrolls report and helped along by a strong performance from Entain. The FTSE 100 was up 0.7% at 8,238.62.

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The downbeat mood which has been percolating through markets has eased off, with the FTSE 100 staging a comeback in early trade. Investors appear to be shaking off worries about a deeper global economic slowdown, helped partly by a shift upwards in oil prices. This rebound is likely to be part of a pattern of volatility, rather than a meaningful change of sentiment, given the concerns still lingering about a potential US recession and continued weakness in China.

"Although China's inflation rate has edged up, with the economy veering away from deflation, the headline rate of 0.6% wasn't as high as expected, indicating slow progress."

In equity markets, Ladbrokes owner Entain surged to the top of the FTSE 100 after it said online net gaming revenue growth during the second half to date has been ahead of its expectations.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "The spike in the price comes as something of a relief given that the shares have fallen by 45% over the last year, largely driven by regulatory threat and emerging competition in the US."

Flutter Entertainment also gained.

Elsewhere, Barratt Developments edged up after saying that it, Homes England and Lloyds Bank had formed a joint venture that will focus on developments of large sites for housing.

Rightmove was boosted by an upgrade to 'hold' from 'underperform' at Jefferies after Australia's REA Group confirmed last week that it was considering a possible cash and share offer for the property portal.

On the downside, Burberry slid after a downgrade to 'underweight' from 'equalweight' at Barclays, which cited structural brand weakness.

Barclays said that despite already being one of the worst-performing names in its space, it still sees downside for Burberry as it has concerns around the company's ability to remain a high-end luxury brand in line with its coverage "considering its lack of disciplined full-price strategy".

"Burberry looks likely to turn loss-making for the first time in H1-25 and considering that we expect the environment to remain tough next year, it could be difficult to see margin recovery in the short term," the bank said.

Computacenter was also weaker as it posted a drop in first-half profit, saying that UK demand for hardware has been weaker than it expected at the start of the year, with customers exercising greater caution and purchasing decisions taking longer to conclude.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 8,238.62 0.70% FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,576.05 0.40% techMARK (TASX) 4,834.40 0.37%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Entain (ENT) 695.60p 8.79% Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 3,574.00p 2.35% Diploma (DPLM) 4,390.00p 2.14% Melrose Industries (MRO) 462.80p 2.10% Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 16,340.00p 1.90% Experian (EXPN) 3,672.00p 1.89% HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 661.00p 1.88% Whitbread (WTB) 3,039.00p 1.84% Croda International (CRDA) 3,938.00p 1.81% Centrica (CNA) 122.80p 1.78%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Burberry Group (BRBY) 568.20p -5.99% Land Securities Group (LAND) 650.50p -0.99% Pearson (PSON) 1,065.00p -0.79% Prudential (PRU) 616.40p -0.58% Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 4,515.00p -0.51% Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,194.00p -0.45% LondonMetric Property (LMP) 200.20p -0.30% Tesco (TSCO) 365.80p -0.22% Unite Group (UTG) 954.00p -0.21% AstraZeneca (AZN) 12,624.00p -0.21%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Trainline (TRN) 304.40p 3.61% Auction Technology Group (ATG) 380.50p 2.98% Babcock International Group (BAB) 480.80p 2.82% Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,204.00p 2.82% Genus (GNS) 1,748.00p 2.22% Spectris (SXS) 2,806.00p 2.04% Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 296.80p 1.99% Alpha Group International (ALPH) 2,315.00p 1.98% Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 156.00p 1.96% International Workplace Group (IWG) 168.60p 1.93%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Computacenter (CCC) 2,468.00p -4.64% Supermarket Income Reit (SUPR) 74.50p -2.10% Ocado Group (OCDO) 329.00p -2.08% Syncona Limited NPV (SYNC) 117.20p -1.68% British Land Company (BLND) 435.20p -1.54% PureTech Health (PRTC) 146.40p -1.48% Great Portland Estates (GPE) 347.00p -1.28% Tritax Eurobox (GBP) (EBOX) 70.20p -1.13% Harbour Energy (HBR) 270.70p -1.10% Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 832.50p -1.07%