Christmas earnings continue with Marks & Spencer and Tesco reporting strong festive trading

Good morning, FTSE100 edged lower in early trading as markets paused for breath after the strong start to the year so far. The blue chip index was down 10 at 7,541.
 
Tesco reported 2.7% growth in like-for-like sales across the festive period, but also cautioned over "growing cost pressures and supply chain challenges". Even so, it raised its profit expectations for the second time in four months to over £2.5bn.
 
Ovo Energy is to cut its workforce by just under a quarter to save costs as the energy industry crisis worsens. The UK’s third largest gas and electricity supplier will make 1,700 workers redundant. The company apologised after it advised customers to do star jumps, cuddle pets and eat porridge to cut down energy bills and stay warm.
 
Marks & Spencer said it grew across all divisions during the Christmas trading period. Food sales were a record for the period while the amount of clothing going into its sale dropped by two-thirds.
 
Among the small caps TomCo Energy was up 5% after an independent report found proved plus probable reserves of 33.6mln barrels at its project in Utah. Consultant NSAI estimated undiscounted future net revenues in the range of US$942mln (1P) to US$2.5bn (3P).
 
United Oil and Gas meanwhile announced more successful test results and commencement of production from the Al Jahraa-13 development well.  Al Jahraa-13 flowed at rates up to 897 barrels of oil during testing and has been brought online at an initial rate of 600 barrels. 
 
Caerus Minerals jumped 32% after announcing high-grade gold intercepts from drill hole testing in Cyprus. The assays showed a best width grade of 1.4g/t gold over 22m.