By midday on Wednesday, London’s FTSE 100 had shaken off its earlier losses and resumed the upwards momentum it displayed on its first trading day of 2022, as broker upgrades helped lift some heavyweight stocks and supermarkets gained ground on positive industry data.
The blue chip benchmark traded 0.19% higher at 7,519.62 by lunchtime, though the FTSE 250 was flat at 23,895.60.
Investors were awaiting the release of US ADP private sector payrolls data for December, keen for any insights regarding the extent to which Omicron has negatively impacted economic growth.
SUPERMARKETS SWEPT HIGHER
Shares in Sainsbury’s (SBRY), Tesco (TSCO) and Ocado (OCDO) were up 1%, 0.9% and 6% respectively as data from market research outfit Kantar revealed bumper Christmas for the supermarket sector with £11.7 billion worth of sales in December.
Online groceries specialist Ocado’s joint venture partner Marks & Spencer (MKS) was also in demand, rising 3% to 245.7p, as Ocado was shown to be the only operator tracked by Kantar to beat its festive performance in 2020, sales up 2.5% year-on-year in the 12 weeks to 26 December.
Elsewhere, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca (AZN) moved 0.1% higher to £84.83 after announcing that it had completed the transfer of its global rights for pulmonary drugs Eklira and Duaklir to Covis Pharma for $270 million.
Eklira, known as Tudorza in the US, and Duaklir are inhaled respiratory medicines used for the maintenance treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Shares in telecommunications and mobile money services company Airtel Africa (AAF) fell 1.3% to 139.3p after it announced the first closing of the transaction to sell its telecommunications tower assets in Tanzania to a joint venture company owned by a subsidiary of SBA Communications Corporation, and Paradigm Infrastructure.
The gross consideration for the transaction is $176.1 million. Around $60 million from the proceeds will be used to invest in network and sales infrastructure in Tanzania and for distribution to the Government of Tanzania.
‘The balance of the proceeds will be used to reduce debt at group level’, the company added.
AROUND THE MARKET
Shares in London Stock Exchange (LSEG) were marked up 1.4% to £71.70 following an upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ at Citigroup.
Gene and cell therapy group Oxford Biomedica (OXB) edged 0.3% lower to £12.06 after it announced that it has signed a new license and supply agreement with Cabaletta Bio, granting the latter with a license to the company’s LentiVector platform.
DSG3-CAART is being evaluated in the DesCAARTes phase 1 clinical trial as a potential treatment for patients with mucosal pemphigus vulgaris, a prototypical B cell-mediated autoimmune disease.
Specialty pharmaceutical company Shield Therapeutics (STX:AIM) skipped 4.3% higher to 49p after it entered into an exclusive licence agreement for Accrufer its iron deficiency product, with KYE Pharmaceuticals in Canada.
Under the agreement, KYE Pharmaceuticals will undertake and be responsible for all costs required to achieve marketing authorisation and commercialisation of Accrufer in Canada. Shield will receive double-digit royalties on net sales of Accrufer.
And Facilities by ADF (ADF:AIM), which provides premium serviced production facilities to the UK film and television industry, gained 9% to trade at 54.5p in debut dealings on the junior market.
