Ocado was the FTSE 100’s top riser in afternoon trade on Monday ahead of a raft of Christmas updates from Tesco, Sainsbury’s and JD Sports this week.

Ocado themselves are set to provide a trading update next week.

UK retail companies have so far provided reasonably positive Christmas trading updates with Next and Greggs producing robust figures last week. In the face of concerns about the cost of living crisis, the FTSE 100’s consumer-facing companies have had a strong start to the year and are among the FTSE 100’s best performers in the new year.

Ocado shares are up 21% this year while Sainsbury’s and JD Sports have gained 13% and 11% respectively. The worst performers so far in 2023 are Centrica and Pearson, both down in the region of 5%.

FTSE 100 hits 4-year highs

The FTSE 100 momentarily traded at the highest level for four years on Monday, before falling back to 7,698, down 0.05%, at the time of writing.

A strong US jobs number last week ignited a rally in US stocks which continued into early European trade on Monday.

“The FTSE 100 briefly touched four-year highs as the trading week got away – a significant milestone and some way above where it was in the weeks before the pandemic hit in 2020,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.

“Although US jobs figures came in above expectations at the end of last week, suggesting the labour market is still tight, investors seem to have focused on wage growth coming in slightly below what had been pencilled in. From their perspective that might prompt the Fed to slow its rate rises, hence the positive market reaction to the figures.

“Further easing of China’s Covid measures, despite surging cases in the country, have also helped create a happier mood.”

Miners were among the beneficiaries of improving Chinese sentiment with Glencore and Antofagasta moving higher. Both miners are particularly exposed to copper, which has rallied as the Chinese economy reopens.

Anglo Asian Mining have made their third investment in Libero Copper & Gold Corporation as part of a placing to maintain their 19.8% stake in the company.

 Anglo Asian Mining subscribed for 2.6 million new Libero Copper & Gold Corporation shares at CAN 15 cents per share for a total of CAN$390,000 (US$289,000).

Anglo Asian Mining have sought additional exposure to copper and Libero’s exploration projects with their investment in the TSX-listed company. Libber’s exposure includes Mocoa, one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-molybdenum resources.

Anglo Asian Mining is one of the leading gold and copper producers in Azerbaijan. The company said they expect production of between 54,000oz to 58,000oz gold in 2022.

“We are pleased to make a third investment in Libero in little over a year. With an exciting range of significant copper assets across the Americas, and an experienced management team, we have the upmost confidence in Libero to develop these assets in a swift and responsible manner,” said Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vaziri.

“I look forward to updating our shareholders on Libero’s progress in the coming months.”

Richard Morris, Chief Executive of Tortilla Mexican Grill (LON:MEX), in announcing a Trading Update for the full year to 1 January, declared that:

“We have a proven and highly popular customer proposition. During difficult economic times, restaurants that offer great, consistent food at competitive price points will be the winners, and we sit comfortably in this space.”

It goes without saying that times have been tough out there in the hospitality sector over the last six months or so. 

Therefore the confidence of Morris rings more hopeful than many would have expected.

The £35m capitalised Tortilla Mexican Grill group now has some 82 fast-casual sites worldwide selling freshly made Californian-inspired Mexican cuisine, 65 of which are in the UK operated by the group, 9 are franchised out in the UK and 8 are franchised sites in the Middle East.

The last year was one of high resilience, especially in the face of so many challenges.

The group stated that it was helped by the ongoing strength of its customer proposition and the demand for its sector-leading brands.

Despite the Q4 rail strikes and weather disruptions the group actually saw a 16% like-for-like sales advance over the same period in 2019.

Analyst Anna Barnfather at Liberum Capital rates the group’s shares as a Buy at the current 87p, with a Target Price of 170p.

Her estimates for the last year suggest sales of £58.4m (£48.1m) and an EBITDA of £4.0m (£8.7m).

For the current year Barnfather is going for £69.8m takings and an EBITDA of £5.0m.

The ability of the group to fund itself through current pressures is seen by her estimate of current year end cash of £2.3m (est £0.4m debt).

The group’s management remains confident in its outlook for this year and beyond, and its ability to continue to implement its proven growth strategy. 

Richard Morris stated that:

“Looking ahead, we remain as motivated and enthusiastic as ever about Tortilla’s significant organic growth opportunities in the UK, with the added excitement of growing our already successful franchise partnerships both in the UK and abroad.”

Understandably, with so many external pressures over which its management had no control, this group has withstood and now is ready to push forward again.

The group’s shares reflect the balance sheet ability to resume growth and the continuation of new sites and franchises being rolled out this year.

The FTSE 100 rallied on Friday and closed in on pre-pandemic levels after a robust US jobs number demonstrated strength in the worlds largest economy, at a time inflation rates have began to decline.

The FTSE 100 was trading at 7,689, up 0.71% at the time of writing. A close above 7,672 would be the highest closing level since before the start of the pandemic in 2020.

US futures were surging with the S&P 500 up 1% and NASDAQ up 1.05%.

London-listed equities tracked a US equities higher as investors digested a US jobs report that showed the US unemployment rate falling alongside lower average wage growth, while the headline Non-Farm Payrolls beat expectations.

The US economy added 223,000 jobs in December, beating analyst estimates of 203,000 jobs added.

The Federal Reserve is now contending with falling inflation in a healthy economy, apparently able to withstand high prices and sharply higher interest rates. US CPI data due next week will be closely watched for confirmation of a trend to the downside in inflation figures and hints of what the Fed will do next.

Shell & BP

The strong jobs number helped build on a FTSE 100 rally on Friday that started with strength in oil majors BP & Shell. Shell released an insight into their Q4 results on Friday highlighting strong performance in their gas divisions.

Shell was 1.5% higher and BP was gaining 1.6% at the time of writing.

UK Retail spending

UK food retailers Sainsbury’s, Ocado and Tesco caught the interest of investors on Friday following Kantar data for the Christmas trading period earlier in week continued to provide support for the sector. Attractive results from Next and Greggs also provided evidence of a resilient UK consumer during December.

Tesco is set to report Christmas trading 13th January and Sainbury’s will release their figures 11th January.