London stocks rise at open after bright GDP data

UK stocks ticked higher at open on Friday after data showed Britain's economic performance since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic had been stronger than previously thought, boosting sentiment. The blue-chip FTSE 100 rose 0.5% by 0713 GMT. Severn Trent shares rose 3.0% after the British water supplier said it would raise 1 billion pounds ($1.2 billion) in new equity, including 500 million pounds from Qatar's sovereign wealth fund.

UK stocks ticked higher at open on Friday after data showed Britain's economic performance since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic had been stronger than previously thought, boosting sentiment.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 rose 0.5% by 0713 GMT. Britain's gross domestic product(GDP) in the second quarter of 2023 was confirmed at 0.2% from the quarter before, in line with the economists' forecasts polled by Reuters, as the Office of National Statistics released revisions to official data.

The second quarter GDP was 1.8% larger than in the final quarter of 2019, the last full quarter before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the growth was faster than Germany or France. Consumer staples and discretionary stocks rose with personal goods, retailers and homebuilders shares climbing over 1% each.

The mid-cap FTSE 250 index added 0.8%, boosted by a 7.7% rise in the shares of Aston Martin after the luxury carmaker said Chairman Lawrence Stroll's Yew Tree Consortium further raised its stake in the firm by 3.27% to 26.23%. Severn Trent shares rose 3.0% after the British water supplier said it would raise 1 billion pounds ($1.2 billion) in new equity, including 500 million pounds from Qatar's sovereign wealth fund.