FTSE 100 ekes out early gains; Shell and BT rise on quarterly earnings - Market Report

London markets lacked direction early as investors mulled the decision by the US central bank not to cut interest rates last night. The Bank of England makes its decision at lunchtime today and a similar outcome is widely expected.

The Footsie was up six points at 7,637 in early trading with Shell’s US$3.5bn buyback, higher dividend and better-then-expected quarterly fourth quarter profit lifting the shares around 1%.

BT did even better on new chief executive Allison Kirkby’s first outing. The telco eked out gains in both revenue and underlying profits in its third quarter putting it on track to hit full-year targets.

A new round of North Sea oil licences sees BP and Shell, again, among the big winners. Minnow Deltic Energy also picked up two confirmed licences and might be in line for a third.

And finally a rarity on AIM today, an IPO. Microsalt, a low-salt food additive group, raised £3m and started trading with a value of £18.5m