London close: Stocks end lower as China stimulus underwhelms

London stocks were firmly in the red on Friday, with heavily-weighted miners under the cosh as China’s latest $1.4trn stimulus package underwhelmed investors.

The FTSE 100 was down 0.84% at 8,072.39, alongside a 0.57% decline out on the second-tier index which fell to 20,517.92.

In parallel, cable was down by 0.72% at 1.2893 as government debt yields in the States pushed higher.

"The initial market response appears to be negative; one potential impact of a Trump victory on China was its potential impact on the stimulus response, and markets may have been hoping for a larger-than-expected stimulus," said Lynn Song at ING.

"However, as we noted in our report earlier this week, there may be more to come once policymakers have more clarity on what a new Trump administration may do next year."

On Friday, the People's National Congress announced $1.4trn of debt measures to help alleviate local governments' 'hidden' indebtedness.

Worth noting, Chinese officials pegged the amount of hidden debt at 14.3trn yuan, well short of the roughly 60trn yuan estimated by the International Monetary Fund.

On a closely-linked note, Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill told an online briefing that the scope for further rate cuts would depend on price gains continuing to cool and the UK avoiding "big new disturbances".

In equity markets, Anglo American, Antofagasta, Glencore and Rio were among the worst performers.

Vistry tumbled as the housebuilder warned on full-year profits again, cutting its forecast for completions and pointing to the impact from issues in the South Division.

The housebuilder now expects FY24 adjusted pre-tax profit of around £300m, down from a forecast of £350m last month.

The company already warned on profits in October. It said at the time that this was because it had underestimated build costs on nine schemes in its Southern Division.

Serco also suffered heavy losses as the outsourcer said it had not been reselected for its long-running Australian immigration detention centres contract, and estimated that changes to employer national insurance contributions will increase labour costs by £20m a year.

Greggs was knocked lower by a downgrade to ‘sell’ from ‘hold’ at Deutsche Bank.

On the upside, BA and Iberia owner IAG flew to the top of the FTSE 100 as it posted a 15% jump in third-quarter operating profit to €2.01bn and a 7.9% increase in revenue, and announced a €350m share buyback.

EasyJet and Wizz Air also gained.

TI Fluid Systems advanced after saying that the deadline by which ABC Technologies must make a firm offer for the company has been extended in order to allow the group to finalise its remaining confirmatory due diligence and financing.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 8,072.39 -0.84%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,517.92 -0.57%
techMARK (TASX) 4,603.77 0.13%

FTSE 100 - Risers

International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 234.50p 7.18%
Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 19,125.00p 4.54%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 9,204.00p 2.78%
BT Group (BT.A) 140.00p 2.19%
Pearson (PSON) 1,204.00p 1.86%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 9,903.00p 1.83%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,831.00p 1.67%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 4,594.00p 1.59%
Entain (ENT) 748.00p 1.49%
Relx plc (REL) 3,693.00p 1.48%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Vistry Group (VTY) 738.00p -15.51%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,689.00p -6.61%
Glencore (GLEN) 394.80p -4.96%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,946.00p -4.90%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 374.50p -4.76%
Prudential (PRU) 642.60p -4.32%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,372.00p -4.32%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 690.00p -3.58%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 250.60p -2.96%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 53.08p -2.68%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Wood Group (John) (WG.) 57.85p 16.07%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,517.00p 10.25%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,669.00p 4.25%
Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 682.00p 3.49%
Patria Private Equity Trust (PPET) 536.00p 2.68%
TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 169.40p 2.67%
Helios Towers (HTWS) 109.00p 2.64%
ICG Enterprise Trust (ICGT) 1,266.00p 2.43%
HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited A Shs (HVPE) 2,430.00p 2.10%
Great Portland Estates (GPE) 312.00p 1.96%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Mitie Group (MTO) 107.20p -10.07%
Serco Group (SRP) 160.00p -9.81%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 233.00p -7.72%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 804.80p -7.56%
Close Brothers Group (CBG) 205.60p -6.29%
Foresight Environmental Infrastructure Limited (FGEN) 79.50p -6.25%
Greggs (GRG) 2,638.00p -5.99%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 2,075.00p -5.47%
Trainline (TRN) 396.20p -5.42%
Ninety One (N91) 160.80p -4.29%