London close: Stocks end month on a down note

London stocks slumped on the last trading day of the first quarter, as investors waited on the all important monthly US jobs report, which was due out on the next day.

The Footsie ended the session 28.27 points or 0.46% lower at 6,174.90 points and was off by 1.2% for the quarter as a whole. For March, the top flight index racked up gains of 1.1%.

That was worse than the approximately 1.0% advance registered so far in the year by America´s S&P 500, after an approximately 13.0% jump since the 22-month lows plumbed in the first half of February.

Acting as a backdrop, on Thursday the latest government data revealed the UK current account deficit widened in the fourth quarter of 2015 to its largest since 1955, underlining of the key weakspots of the economy.

In parallel, speaking from Tokyo, in his role as the chair of the Financial Stability Board, Mark Carney warned that central banks alone could not overcome the challenges posed by low nominal rates of economic growth.

The British current account deficit widened to £32.7bn in the fourth quarter from £20.1bn in the third quarter, pushing that key measure of the economy´s funding needs to a record 7.0% of GDP for the fourth quarter, the Office for National Statistics revealed.

Analysts had pencilled in a deficit of £21.2bn.

For the whole of 2015, the current account deficit printed at 5.2% of GDP, another record.

Dr. Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said: "while the markets have so far taken a relatively relaxed view of the UK’s elevated current account deficits, it could become an increasing problem if the markets lose confidence in the UK economy for any reason – especially given the size of the fourth quarter 2015 shortfall.”

In other news, the UK economy was estimated to have grown 0.6% quarter-on-quarter in last three months of 2015, according to the final estimate from ONS. It compares to the previous estimate of 0.5% and the third quarter's 0.4%.

Over in the commodities space, Brent crude oil futures were 1.06% higher to $39.68 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate rose 0.725% to $38.60 per barrel.

Elsewhere, the Eurozone consumer prices index improved in March but remained in negative territory at -0.1%, according a flash estimate by Eurostat that was in line with consensus forecasts. Eurozone CPI was improved from -0.2% in February.

Core CPI, which excludes more volatile prices such as fuel and food, rose to 1.0% from 0.8% the month before and beating predictions for a rise to 0.9%.

Among corporate stocks, miners Antofagasta, Fresnillo and Randgold Resources advanced as gold and silver prices rose.

Tui was a high flyer after saying overall demand and pricing for holidays has remained resilient in the first half of its financial year. Tui said it has sold 47% of its summer holiday programme, in line with last year, and at 1% higher average selling prices, meaning revenue from the programme has been lifted 3%.

Shares in education publisher Pearson retreated after Deutsche Bank said in a note on Thursday that the stock’s valuation was full, trading on a 15.8x 2016 price-to-earnings ratio it believes is high given structural challenges and revenue decline.

Barclays declined following reports its Asia-Pacific co-chief executive Eiji Nakai will leave the bank at the end of June.

AO World was among the best performers on the second-tier index after saying that it enjoyed a better fourth quarter than it expected.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,174.90 -0.46%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,926.12 -0.29%
techMARK (TASX) 3,125.13 -0.24%

FTSE 100 - Risers

TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,079.00p 4.96%
Glencore (GLEN) 157.30p 3.79%
Anglo American (AAL) 552.10p 3.06%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 984.50p 2.02%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 2,871.00p 1.70%
Carnival (CCL) 3,752.00p 1.63%
Fresnillo (FRES) 949.00p 1.49%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,370.00p 1.43%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 9,705.00p 1.41%
Worldpay Group (WI) (WPG) 275.10p 1.14%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Pearson (PSON) 875.00p -3.37%
Next (NXT) 5,400.00p -2.88%
Old Mutual (OML) 193.10p -1.83%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 559.00p -1.75%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 198.70p -1.68%
GKN (GKN) 288.80p -1.67%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,480.00p -1.66%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 275.60p -1.64%
BP (BP.) 350.80p -1.52%
Wolseley (WOS) 3,939.00p -1.40%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Acacia Mining (ACA) 282.00p 6.07%
Just Retirement Group (JRG) 157.90p 3.75%
AO World (AO.) 180.30p 3.59%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 168.90p 3.21%
Serco Group (SRP) 102.70p 3.17%
Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 552.50p 3.08%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 343.00p 2.79%
Debenhams (DEB) 75.20p 2.66%
Riverstone Energy Limited (RSE) 814.50p 2.65%
NMC Health (NMC) 1,057.00p 2.32%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Interserve (IRV) 433.70p -4.72%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 205.70p -4.55%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 955.00p -3.93%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 356.80p -3.44%
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 317.70p -3.23%
Ophir Energy (OPHR) 77.00p -3.14%
Hays (HAS) 121.00p -3.04%
Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) 227.20p -2.91%
Jimmy Choo (CHOO) 128.10p -2.88%
Electrocomponents (ECM) 241.40p -2.74%