UK shares rebound after strong jobs data

UK shares rose on Tuesday after strong jobs growth in November signalled the labour market withstood the end of Britain’s furlough scheme, while news of a stake change and M&A weighed on telecoms firm BT Group (LON:BT) and pest control company Rentokil.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 gained 0.5%, and was on course to break a four-session losing streak, and the domestically focussed FTSE 250 index rose 0.5% after fears around fresh COVID-19 restrictions hammered both indexes on Monday.

“The sliding rate of unemployment in the UK has certainly boosted the market sentiment as investors brushed off the worries linked to the Omicron variant,” said Kunal Sawhney, chief executive of Kalkine Group.

British employers added a record number of staff in November, data showed ahead of the Bank of England’s monetary policy decision on Thursday.

While positive, the data underscores the dilemma that the BoE faces after the fast-spreading Omicron coronavirus variant and renewed restrictions caused investors to pare back bets of a rate hike this week.

“As far as the policy meeting of the Bank of England for 2021 is concerned, the possibilities of an interest rate hike remain low,” Sawhney said.

Rate-sensitive banks advanced 1.3%.

Miners were the top gainers, up 1.3%, tracking a jump in aluminium prices due to tight supply and easing Chinese restrictions. [MET/L]

Among individual stocks, BT Group fell 5.8% after Franco-Israeli telecoms entrepreneur Patrick Drahi increased his stake to 18%, drawing a defensive response from the British government even though he said he did not intend to launch a takeover.

Pest control company Rentokil fell 4.9%, reversing course after hitting a record high, after saying it would buy U.S.-based peer Terminix Global in a cash-and-stock deal.

Online supermarket group Ocado (LON:OCDO) Group jumped 8.3% on winning a patent infringement lawsuit against Norwegian robotics company AutoStore Holdings Ltd in the International Trade Commission.