London close: Stocks drop ahead of Powell speech

London stocks finished near their session lows as tensions in the Middle East continued to dent sentiment.

Investors were also waiting on a speech from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell that was due after the market close.

The FTSE 100 was down 1.17% at 7,499.53 with the second-tier index off by 1.09% to 17,213.14.

"It has been another day of losses for most indices, as the war in the Middle East and higher bond yields prompt more selling in equity markets," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG.

"Today is chock-full of Fed speakers, but the main event is still to come. Should Powell stick to a more cautious tone than his colleagues then equities might catch a bid. But if the chairman himself is hawkish again then the selling might only intensify into the end of the week."

In equity markets, Rentokil Initial tumbled after saying that its full-year performance in North America was set to be "marginally below" its previous expectations, citing "near-term market uncertainty".

Rightmove was under the cosh after smaller rival OnTheMarket agreed to be taken over by US commercial real estate information group CoStar in a £99m deal.

In research written before OnTheMarket confirmed the takeover, Citi said the news would be negative for Rightmove.

The bank said it believed there had been some hope that Rightmove could be one of the M&A targets, noting that the shares were up 7% since the chief executive of CoStar said on 5th October that the company planned to allocate a portion of its $9bn "war chest" to consolidating European property portals.

"A CoStar acquisition of OTM makes RMV an unlikely option given RMV's dominance," Citi said.

It also noted that CoStar has firepower - $450m to $500m free cash flow per year - so Rightmove could face more intense competition in residential and other areas, especially given CoStar's strength in commercial.

Mondi slid as the paper and packaging group said that challenging conditions continued into the third quarter, with demand "subdued" and profits much lower.

Hargreaves Lansdown and Schroders both fell on the back of updates.

Close Brothers and ITV lost ground as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.

On the upside, insurers Admiral and Direct Line rose, likely on the back of a well-received update from Sabre Insurance.

London Stock Exchange Group was also up after it said full-year growth was set to be towards the upper end of guidance, and posted a jump in third-quarter total income.

AJ Bell rallied as the investment platform delivered an impressive pre-close trading update, with customer numbers rising by 12% and net inflows surpassing the £4bn mark against what it called a "challenging market backdrop".

Hipgnosis gained as it announced a strategic review. Shares in the music rights owner fell sharply earlier this week after it scrapped its interim dividend in order to make sure it complies with its debt covenants, amid expectations of lower payments from its US catalogue.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,499.53 -1.17%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,213.14 -1.09%
techMARK (TASX) 4,049.58 -1.75%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 8,384.00p 2.39%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,489.00p 2.39%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 8,226.00p 1.88%
Halma (HLMA) 1,860.50p 0.89%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,775.00p 0.71%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 255.30p 0.55%
Diageo (DGE) 3,114.00p 0.31%
SSE (SSE) 1,587.00p 0.28%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,137.00p 0.28%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 141.80p 0.21%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Rentokil Initial (RTO) 483.90p -18.64%
Rightmove (RMV) 493.20p -14.29%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,252.00p -6.08%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 692.20p -6.05%
Unite Group (UTG) 858.50p -3.92%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 554.00p -3.48%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 12,725.00p -3.27%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 611.40p -3.08%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 268.10p -3.00%
BAE Systems (BA.) 1,040.50p -2.98%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 165.65p 5.44%
AJ Bell (AJB) 265.40p 4.32%
Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited NPV (SONG) 76.00p 4.11%
Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 80.45p 3.01%
Dr. Martens (DOCS) 119.00p 2.67%
Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 204.00p 2.62%
Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 221.00p 2.31%
NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited Red (NESF) 79.00p 2.07%
NB Private Equity Partners Ltd. (NBPE) 1,590.00p 1.66%
Genuit Group (GEN) 277.00p 1.65%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Close Brothers Group (CBG) 760.50p -8.15%
Ceres Power Holdings (CWR) 218.40p -7.46%
Mobico Group (MCG) 56.50p -5.44%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 612.00p -5.12%
Spectris (SXS) 2,998.00p -4.31%
LXI Reit (LXI) 84.70p -4.29%
Abrdn (ABDN) 153.50p -4.03%
Redrow (RDW) 465.40p -3.80%
Rathbones Group (RAT) 1,484.00p -3.64%
Tritax Eurobox (GBP) (EBOX) 44.80p -3.45%