London open: Stocks gain amid peace hopes; Vodafone in focus

(Sharecast News) - London stocks rose in early trade on Tuesday following solid gains on Wall Street, amid hopes the US-Iran conflict could be nearing an end. At 0845 GMT, the FTSE 100 was 0.5% firmer at 10,838.63, while Brent crude was down 1.8% at $90.90 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate was off 2% at $85.16.

Sentiment was boosted after Donald Trump said overnight that the war with Iran was "effectively over".

Speaking to reporters at the White House, he said: "We're just keeping it the status quo.

"And we're doing that really at the behest of countries that are their neighbours."

Trump added: "At this point, taking the military action doesn't seem to be a very necessary thing - but we're locked and loaded, ready to go for any reason."

Meanwhile, in a post on Truth Social, the US president said he had had an "excellent" talk with the Qatari Prime Minister and highlighted "positive momentum toward an end to this conflict".

On home shores, figures from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG showed that retail sales growth remained sluggish in October as consumers held back spending ahead of Black Friday and Christmas amid mounting pressure on household budgets.

Total retail sales increased by 1.5% year on year over the four weeks to 31 October, slightly below the 1.6% growth recorded in the same period last year, but ahead of the three-month average of 1.2%.

Investors were also mulling the latest data from Worldpanel by Numerator, which showed that grocery price inflation continued to edge upwards in October as retail's critical golden quarter got underway.

Like-for-like grocery price inflation was 2.6% in the four weeks to 1 November, up from 2.5% in September and 2.3% a month prior to that.

Prices rose fastest in household lifestyle products, such as batteries, fresh fish and skin cleansing. The fastest falls were seen in butters and spreads, cheese, and chilled smoothies and juices.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Worldpanel, said: "Grocery price inflation continued to increase after slowing over the summer. While prices are rising at a slower rate than at the beginning of the year, the direction of travel has changed. Household budgets have already taken a hit after the latest increase to the energy price cap arrived with the cold weather in October, and shoppers will be keeping a close eye on prices at the till this winter."

In equity markets, Playtech shot up as it said full-year profit was set to be ahead of analysts' expectations following better-than-expected trading from July to the end of October, driven by a continued strong performance in the Americas.

Watches of Switzerland also rallied as it hailed a strong first-half performance, with group revenue up 15%, and narrowed its FY27 guidance towards the upper end of the company's range.

On the downside, Ithaca Energy, Shell and BP all gushed lower as oil prices fell, while Avon Technologies slid despite posting a rise in full-year profit and revenue.

Shares of Vodafone dipped as the telecoms giant upped full-year guidance despite a slide into the red and ongoing weakness in Germany.

It now expects adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and lease-related expenses to come in between €13.2bn and €13.4bn, and adjusted free cash flow of €2.8bn and €3bn. It had previously forecast EBITDAaL of between €13bn and €13.3bn, and cash flow in the range of €2.6bn to €2.9bn.



Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 10,838.63 0.52% FTSE 250 (MCX) 24,834.33 0.52% techMARK (TASX) 6,251.67 0.96%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Prudential (PRU) 981.60p 2.63% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 1,355.20p 2.45% Lion Finance Group (BGEO) 13,550.00p 2.41% Standard Chartered (STAN) 2,202.00p 2.18% Barclays (BARC) 438.50p 2.00% International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 459.70p 1.93% Melrose Industries (MRO) 487.70p 1.90% Investec (INVP) 643.00p 1.74% Smiths Group (SMIN) 2,666.00p 1.71% Weir (WEIR) 2,408.00p 1.69%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

BP (BP.) 549.70p -1.08% Shell (SHEL) 3,659.00p -1.05% Ithaca Energy (ITH) 246.40p -0.96% The Sage Group (SGE) 1,148.00p -0.78% Admiral Group (ADM) 3,886.00p -0.77% Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 435.70p -0.62% Autotrader Group (AUTO) 555.60p -0.47% Tesco (TSCO) 546.20p -0.44% Kingfisher (KGF) 378.50p -0.39% Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,993.50p -0.37%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Playtech (PTEC) 381.40p 3.53% Ceres Power Holdings (CWR) 284.20p 2.96% Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 765.00p 2.95% NCC Group (NCC) 162.80p 2.65% Discoverie Group (DSCV) 819.00p 2.63% Volex (VLX) 549.00p 2.43% TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 5,455.00p 2.34% Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,150.00p 2.13% Shawbrook Group (SHAW) 288.25p 2.02% Seraphim Space Investment Trust (SSIT) 182.60p 2.01%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Avon Technologies (AVON) 2,245.00p -5.87% Coats Group (COA) 80.85p -4.41% Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 2.41p -4.21% EnQuest (ENQ) 25.75p -2.28% Travis Perkins (TPK) 646.50p -1.30% PPHE Hotel Group Ltd (PPH) 1,522.00p -1.30% Halfords Group (HFD) 255.00p -0.78% Rightmove (RMV) 555.20p -0.72% Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 555.00p -0.72% Harbour Energy (HBR) 265.20p -0.52%