FTSE 100 surged higher in early trades led by oil companies on higher crude prices and miners as China started to ease Covid restrictions. London’s blue-chip index was up 69 at 7,327.
Heathrow has been told to cut passenger charges every year until 2026. Airlines complained bitterly about a proposed rise in charges prompting the Civil Aviation Authority to tell the airport to cut them. Royal Mail is facing a strike from 115,000 postal workers in a row about pay and jobs. The CWU said it is sending out strike ballot papers after rejecting the company's latest offer.
Nike reported lower quarterly revenue but it was not as bad as Wall Street expected, despite a Covid lockdown in China and an exit from Russia. Guidance from the sportswear manufacturer and retailer for the coming quarter was revenue growth of a low double-digit percentage.
Ceres Power has agreed to deliver a megawatt-scale solid oxide electrolyser demonstrator to Shell next year to produce green hydrogen. Shell will install the system at its research and development technology centre in Bangalore and said it is the start of a longer-term collaboration between the two.
Creo Medical said trading so far this year has been strong, continuing the momentum seen in 2021. “The solid progress made over the past year underpins the board's continued confidence” chairman Charles Spicer wrote in a statement issued ahead of today’s AGM.