London midday: FTSE stays up as investors mull Nvidia results, eye US GDP

(Sharecast News) - London stocks had maintained gains by midday on Thursday as investors mulled results from chip maker Nvidia and looked ahead to the latest US GDP numbers. The FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 8,368.19.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "The FTSE 100 ticked higher despite a technology-led sell-off in the US overnight and a negative after-hours reaction to Nvidia's results - the lack of tech stocks in the UK index proving a rare boon on Thursday morning.

"Consumer-facing names were getting some love from the market along with resources stocks on a quiet day in London for corporate news.

"Later today the market will absorb a second estimate of US GDP - with investors hoping for further evidence of a soft landing for the economy as the Federal Reserve readies its first interest rate cut of the current cycle."

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 Bunzl was higher following an upgrade to 'sector perform' from 'underperform' by the same outfit.

British Gas owner Centrica was boosted by an upgrade to 'buy' at Jefferies.

GSK was higher 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 rose 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.

Diageo and Glencore both fell as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 8,368.19 0.29% FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,101.15 0.16% techMARK (TASX) 4,916.26 0.42%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Whitbread (WTB) 2,945.00p 3.99% Weir Group (WEIR) 1,993.00p 2.26% B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 445.30p 1.64% Barclays (BARC) 227.40p 1.56% Spirax Group (SPX) 7,525.00p 1.55% Bunzl (BNZL) 3,514.00p 1.50% Centrica (CNA) 128.15p 1.46% Standard Chartered (STAN) 779.00p 1.46% easyJet (EZJ) 475.60p 1.39% Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,324.00p 1.37%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Diageo (DGE) 2,473.00p -1.85% Glencore (GLEN) 399.60p -1.22% Prudential (PRU) 649.60p -1.22% Smith (DS) (SMDS) 473.60p -1.09% Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,798.00p -0.99% LondonMetric Property (LMP) 204.60p -0.68% Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 4,374.00p -0.64% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 498.60p -0.32% BP (BP.) 430.55p -0.23% Entain (ENT) 629.40p -0.22%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Close Brothers Group (CBG) 520.00p 6.64% Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,350.00p 2.51% Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 2,320.00p 2.20% Hill and Smith (HILS) 2,150.00p 2.14% Harbour Energy (HBR) 306.40p 2.13% Auction Technology Group (ATG) 420.00p 2.07% 4Imprint Group (FOUR) 5,240.00p 1.55% Volution Group (FAN) 553.00p 1.47% Jlen Environmental Assets Group Limited NPV (JLEN) 95.10p 1.39% Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,613.00p 1.38%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Zigup (ZIG) 400.50p -4.19% Hochschild Mining (HOC) 172.20p -3.15% Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 2,594.00p -2.48% RHI Magnesita N.V. (DI) (RHIM) 3,220.00p -2.42% IG Group Holdings (IGG) 969.50p -2.27% Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 915.50p -1.98% Wood Group (John) (WG.) 131.10p -1.87% Caledonia Investments (CLDN) 3,590.00p -1.64% Henderson Smaller Companies Inv Trust (HSL) 902.00p -1.64% Quilter (QLT) 138.50p -1.56%