(Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 bounded into Monday's session to kick last week's rally back in gear, helped along by upbeat overnight data from China and Japan.
Vodafone, which reported a swing to interim profit, and Smiths Group, with its "good" first quarter performance, were among the top risers in the blue-chip index in early dealings.
The FTSE 100 index was up 47.22 points, or 0.8%, at 6,363.61 early Monday - having gained 7.0% over the course of last week. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 138.93 points, or 0.7%, at 19,408.93. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.5% at 1,004.72.
The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.5% at 632.99. The Cboe 250 was up 0.8% at 16,696.89, and the Cboe Small Companies up 0.5% at 10,719.06.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 1.0% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.7% early Monday.
"European bourses head out of the blocks on the front foot as Covid vaccine optimism and encouraging data from China and Japan overshadow concerns over rising Covid cases," summarised Fiona Cincotta at City Index.
China's retail sales continued a general recovery in October, official data showed Monday, on the back of a national holiday and policies aimed at boosting spending. Although China has largely brought the coronavirus under control, spending has been slower to recover as the world still grapples with the impact of the pandemic.
Beijing's National Bureau of Statistics said Monday that retail sales in the world's second-largest economy had risen 4.3% on-year last month.
The figure is lower than the 5% growth expected by analysts polled by Bloomberg, but still continued an upward trend as spenders gradually began to open their wallets again, particularly around the October 1 national holiday.
Industrial production growth in October remained the same as the month before, but continued to rise more than expected at 6.9%, according to the NBS.
In China, the Shanghai Composite ended up 1.1% on Monday, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong finished up 0.9%.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 2.1%. Against the yen, the dollar softened to JPY104.44 versus JPY104.65.
Japan's economy exited recession in the third quarter, data on Monday showed, growing a better-than-expected 5.0%.
The positive figures come after three quarters of contraction in the world's third-largest economy, with revised data showing the economy shrank 8.2% in the second quarter, more than the previously estimated 7.9%.
Noting the positive data from Asia, City Index's Cincotta said: "The upbeat developments overshadowed news of surging Covid cases in Europe and the US. The US crossed the grim milestone of 11 million total cases on Sunday whilst Germany's economic minister warned that Germany must live with restrictions against the spread of Covid for the coming four to five months."
The euro traded at USD1.1859 early Monday, rising from USD1.1824 late Friday. Sterling was quoted at USD1.3232, higher than USD1.3172 at the London equities close on Friday.
Gold was quoted at USD1,893.87 an ounce on Monday, up on USD1,891.34 on Friday. Brent oil was trading at USD43.69 a barrel, higher than USD42.88 late Friday.
Helping boost the FTSE 100 to a strong start on Monday was Vodafone, up 3.8% in early dealings after swinging to an interim profit.
Revenue for the first half to September 30 fell 2.3% to EUR21.43 billion, though the telecommunications company swung to a pretax profit of EUR2.05 billion from a EUR511 million loss a year ago.
"Losses were recognised in the comparative period relating to Vodafone Idea Ltd, which outweighed a EUR1.1 billion profit recorded on the disposal of Vodafone New Zealand. The current period includes a gain of EUR1.0 billion arising on the merger of Vodafone Hutchison Australia into TPG Telecom Ltd," the firm noted.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation fell 1.9% organically to EUR7.02 billion.
"Today's results underline increased confidence in our full-year outlook. We are reporting a resilient first half performance, and we continue to see good commercial momentum across the group," said Chief Executive Nick Read.
Vodafone said full-year adjusted Ebitda is expected to be between EUR14.4 billion and EUR14.6 billion in the 2021 financial year, and it expects free cash flow - pre-spectrum and restructuring - to be at least EUR5 billion.
"Vodafone continues to grind out progress and has swung to a profit for the period compared to a previous loss," said Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor.
He added: "Most notably, the huge and complex transformation is coming together."
Smiths Group rose 3.3% after delivering a "good" performance in the first quarter.
Revenue for the three months to October 31 for continuing operations was down 2% on an underlying basis, a figure which it said "underpins" confidence in meeting market expectations for the full-year.
John Crane performed as expected and Smiths Detection delivered a strong performance in Aviation during the quarter, which was offset by the Other Security Systems area. Flex-Tek delivered "strong industrial sales" that more than offset Aerospace weakness, while "good momentum" continued in Smiths Interconnect.
For Smiths Medical, which is excluded from the group's continued operations, revenue was up 4% on an underlying basis.
Smiths added that its strategic restructuring programme is "progressing well" and will delivered the anticipated GBP30 million of savings in the current financial year, and the full GBP70 million benefit in the 2022 year.
Informa shares dipped 1.1%, after Berenberg cut the business events and publishing firm to Hold from Buy.
Softcat rose 4.0% after saying it performed well in the first quarter ended October 31. The IT infrastructure firm said it delivered year-on-year growth in revenue, gross profit and operating profit while also achieving its recruitment targets.
"The board is pleased with the results to date and notes further positive momentum heading into the second quarter," Softcat said.
By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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