BP, Aberdeen Asset Management and BT

“The FTSE100 opened the shortened trading week on the front foot, following on from gains in the US and Asia overnight, with investors looking ahead to the US Federal Reserve interest rate call tomorrow,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“Oil giant BP led the blue-chip board in early trading after swinging back into profit in the first quarter. BP has been buoyed by higher oil prices and output was also up on a year ago. BP made a profit of $1.45bn for the period compared with a loss of $583m last time while underlying replacement cost profit, which is the group’s preferred measure of performance, rose to $1.5bn from $532m a year ago. The first of seven major projects started up during the quarter but with another three near completion a material improvement in operating cash flow from the second half is expected. BP’s shares were up by over 2.5%.

“Aberdeen Asset Management's shares rose after first half underlying pre-tax profits increased by 19.8% to £195.2m. The group's assets under management totalled £308,1bbn - up from £292.8bn a year ago. Net inflows on the back of favourable market conditions and the delivery of £70m of cost savings have resulted in a healthy rise in revenues and profits. Aberdeen’s shares were up by more than 2.7% in early trading.

“BT’s shares edged up after it completed the acquisition of IP Trade, a provider of unified communications and collaboration solutions for trading floor environments and command-and-control dispatch centres, following approval by the Competition & Markets Authority This is expected to improve customers' ability to unify trading and control room communications by enabling teams to collaborate across complex, global communities more effectively, using a blend of speech, video and messaging with the broadest range of fixed and mobile devices and applications.”

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