Market report: Housebuilders boosted by HSBC forecasts for sector

Estate agents have reported revived interest from would-be house buyers since the general election

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Joanna Hodgson19 February 2020

Investors that may have been dubious about estate agent reports of a Boris bounce to the housing market, looked more confident on Wednesday, choosing to jump into some of Britain’s building giants.

Housebuilders were among the risers today on the back of HSBC upgrading its profits forecast view on a number of stocks in the sector.

Today a note from HSBC said the decisive general election result “has brought the prospect of a final settlement of Brexit closer and unleashed pent-up demand in housing activity”.

It also predicted a boost to sales in 2020 as Brits rush to take advantage of the government’s Help to Buy scheme. From April next year Help to Buy will be restricted to first-time buyers.

HSBC upgraded Berkeley to buy from hold, and it was one of the big risers on the FTSE 100, sending the shares up 174p to 5536p.

Taylor Wimpey gained 2.9p to 234.6p and investors also piled into the lender’s other top tips. Shares in FTSE 250 company Bellway gained 54.58p to 4279.58p and shares in shares in Redrow edged up 6p to 836p.

Overall the blue-chip index, which was expected to open higher after the spread of coronavirus in China looked to have slowed, rose 53.33 points to 7435.39.

FTSE 100 fallers included NMC Health, down 40.46p to 803.44p. It comes as Czech activist investor Krupa Global Investments said it was not proceeding with finding a private equity buyer for the under-fire healthcare operator.

Krupa said it disagreed with the resignation of chairman BR Shetty this week and that it wants to see the founder return. The FTSE 250 was up 78.61 points to 21757. Elsewhere, struggling High Street lender Metro Bank said interim chief executive Dan Frumkin will take the top job on a permanent basis.