London stocks gain as Kingfisher, Moonpig rally

Moonpig surged after agreeing to buy UK gifting group Buyagift for $156m

London stocks rose in early trade on Monday as investors brushed aside concerns about global growth and inflation, at least for now.

At 7:50 am GMT, the FTSE 100 was 0.9% firmer at 7,457.15.

Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: European markets are staging gains this morning with the DAX up by nearly 1.5% while the FTSE 100 has pushed above 7,450 as it looks towards 7,500 as the next near-term resistance hurdle.

Most stocks in the UK index are in the green with Kingfisher leading the charge thanks to its surprise share buyback announcement, Scholar said.

US futures are pointing higher after the Dow logged its eight consecutive weekly decline and after the S&P 500 briefly fell into bear market territory on Friday before clawing back earlier losses into the close, she said.

In equity markets, B&Q owner Kingfisher jumped to the top of the FTSE 100 after it reiterated annual guidance, reported an expected fall in first-quarter sales and announced a £300m ($377m) share buyback. The company said total group sales fell 5.8% to £3.2bn ($4.03bn) in the three months to April 22, in line with its expectations, against tough comparators last year when a DIY boom amid Covid lockdowns boosted revenues.

IT provider Kainos racked up strong gains after its full-year results and following an upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ at Canaccord.

Moonpig surged after agreeing to buy UK gifting group Buyagift for £124m ($156m).

Scholar said: Shares in Moonpig have jumped more than 13% as investors cheer the acquisition of this cash generative, high growth business. While Moonpig is best known for selling greetings cards online, its plans to expand further into gifts via this acquisition could help broaden its product offering and boost margins, particularly for some of the more expensive add-on products beyond its bread and butter.