London close: Lethargic FTSE ends lower as resources, banks ease
London equities meandered to a somewhat lethargic finish on Tuesday, after the bank holiday weekend, with resources stocks slipping with commodities prices and banks also hurting.
"It wasn't the most glorious of returns from a long weekend in markets," said Jasper Lawler, senior market analyst at London Capital Group.
The FTSE 100 finished the day down 0.28% to 7,526.51, and the FTSE 250 slipped 0.17% down to end the day at 19,991.85. Shares indices in both Europe and the US were lower, too. Sterling was mildly rising on the greenback.
"Investors bought up the latest Trump dip but haven't quite shown the desire to take it any further," said Lawler.
"Continuing weakness in oil markets after last week's Opec meeting doesn't help -- but may also be symptomatic of the shunning of riskier assets."
To these comments, Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex, said "Tuesday Snoozeday" continued after the bell rang on Wall Street.
There was, he said, "little on offer to cheer up the sluggish markets."
Prices for gold, silver and copper were down, as were those for West Texas Intermediate and Brent Crude on concerns about the sufficiency of Opec's production cut extension last week.
On the FTSE this played out with oil heavyweights BP and Shell falling. Among miners it was BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Glencore slipping.
Anglo American has completed the sale of its 83.33% interest in the Dartbrook coal mine located in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia, to Australian Pacific Coal.
British Airways-owner International Consolidated Airlines flew lower after the weekend of disruption to BA flights from a computer glitch.
Banks such as Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered were on the defensive as well.
Royal Bank of Scotland was also in the red after a group of investors agreed on Monday to settle with the bank over claims they were misled about its health before it launched a £12bn rights issue back in 2008.
Looking more closely at the FTSE 100, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has formally opened an investigation into Tesco's proposed acquisition of wholesaler Booker. The first phase would run to 25 July. Tesco's shares were down on the news.
London Stock Exchange Group nudged up as it struck a deal to buy US bank Citigroup's fixed income indices and analytics businesses for $685m (£535m) cash.
Shopping centre operator Intu Properties said itself and TH Real Estate - on behalf of its pan-European investment vehicle, the European Cities Fund - had agreed to form a joint venture to own Madrid Xanadu shopping centre in Spain.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,526.51 -0.28%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,991.85 -0.17%
techMARK (TASX) 3,621.30 -0.26%
FTSE 100 - Risers
3i Group (III) 888.50p 2.30%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,192.00p 1.97%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,673.00p 1.79%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 3,442.00p 1.50%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,031.00p 1.25%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 627.50p 1.21%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,984.00p 1.15%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,661.00p 1.10%
Wolseley (WOS) 5,040.00p 1.04%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,400.00p 1.01%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Mediclinic International (MDC) 789.50p -3.25%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,503.00p -3.19%
Informa (INF) 669.50p -2.76%
Old Mutual (OML) 191.30p -2.70%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 8,095.00p -2.65%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 3,607.50p -1.98%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 809.50p -1.82%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 5,501.00p -1.61%
Experian (EXPN) 1,615.00p -1.58%
BT Group (BT.A) 308.85p -1.58%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 182.60p 5.73%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 454.00p 3.94%
Restaurant Group (RTN) 361.40p 3.08%
Ibstock (IBST) 242.90p 3.01%
Assura (AGR) 63.00p 2.94%
ZPG Plc (ZPG) 369.80p 2.89%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 2,343.00p 2.54%
Countryside Properties (CSP) 334.00p 2.42%
Computacenter (CCC) 863.00p 2.37%
Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 2,589.00p 2.21%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 172.10p -5.49%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 192.70p -4.37%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 493.60p -3.22%
IP Group (IPO) 140.00p -3.18%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 196.80p -2.91%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,181.00p -2.82%
Just Group (JUST) 134.90p -2.60%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 129.30p -2.56%
Polymetal International (POLY) 999.00p -2.54%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 205.30p -2.52%