The stock market has made a soporific start to the new week and new month. The FTSE 100 is flat-lining, off just 3.5 points at 6,816 with traders finding any number of reasons to avoid taking positions. Wall Street is shut for Labor Day, so London has no lead from America today. Manufacturing proved tepid across Europe. Neither did China’s manufacturers offer much encouragement to buy shares.
After Tesco’s profit warning on Friday, the supermarket is down 3.75p more at 226.25p, its lowest in 11 years and weighing on others in the sector. Wm Morrison is off 3.75p at 173.75p and J Sainsbury 3.25p lower at 287p.
Conversely, BAE Systems is at the top of the Footsie, 12p higher at 457p after a double-upgrade from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The weapons manufacturer has underperformed the market by 132 per cent since 2010, Merrill said, but the shares should re-rate from here as increased global tensions put upside pressure on defence budgets.
ITV was chased 5p higher to 216p by re-heated speculation that America’s Liberty Media might bid, while in the FTSE 250, 35.7 points higher at 15,921, Perform jumped 53.5p to 257.25p after its biggest shareholder offered to buy the 57.5 per cent of the sports rights group that it does not already own.