London close: Stocks fall as oil prices reverse gains
UK stocks closed in the red on Thursday as oil prices reversed gains after rising exports in Iraq fuelled concerns about an oversupplied market.
Oil exports from Iraq's southern rose to an average of 3.494 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, an official from the state-run South Oil Company revealed on Thursday. It was above the 3.286 million bpd average for March.
At 1653 BST, Brent crude fell 2.25% to $38.96 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate dropped 2.1% to $36.97 per barrel.
Meanwhile, three top officials from the European Central Bank said the central bank is willing to do whatever is needed to bring inflation back towards its 2% target.
ECB President Mario Draghi, deputy Vitor Constancio and the bank’s chief economist Peter Praet separately expressed the central bank’s willingness to do more if warranted amid global risks and prolonged low inflation.
Their remarks came as the ECB published an account of its 10 March policy meeting when it announced a slate of new measures including expanding the asset purchase programme and slashing key rates.
Earlier, the US saw the release of the Federal Reserve’s 15-16 March policy meeting, which showed several policymakers argued against an interest rate hike in April amid the threat of slower global growth and low inflation.
However, others said an April rate increase was a possibility if economic data showed improvement in the moderate growth in output, further strengthening of the labour market, and inflation rising to 2% over the medium term.
“What many expected or wanted to see did come out in these minutes, but the matter of concern is that Fed members failed to show a solid front and came out looking fragmented, said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Ava Trade.
Closer to home, Halifax revealed UK house prices rose 2.6% month-on-month in March, as second home owners and buy-to-let investors rushed in to purchase homes ahead of higher stamp duty charges in April. It compared to a 1.5% drop in February and beat analysts’ forecasts of 0.9%.
Elsewhere, Chinese stocks declined on concerns that a three-month ban on large shareholders selling more than 1% of a company’s total shares is about to expire. Worries that it will prompt a barrage of selling pressuring the overall market weighed on Chinese equities.
In company news, Marks & Spencer shares rallied after the retailer reported fourth quarter sales that exceeded analysts’ estimates as sales at the troubled general merchandise unit fell less than anticipated.,
Payments processor Worldpay was under pressure after private equity groups Advent International and Bain Capital sold a 12.5% stake in the company.
Glencore fell after JP Morgan Cazenove downgraded the stock to ‘neutral’ from ‘overweight’ saying the agriculture unit stake sale brings to a close the catalyst-rich deleveraging story.
Pearson, Aviva, Lloyds and Taylor Wimpey were in the red as their shares went ex-dividend.
Supermarket Sainsbury's was on the front foot after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to ‘outperform’ from ‘underperform’ and lifted the price target to 290p from 240p.
Chip designer ARM Holdings rose after South Korea’s Samsung said it was forecasting a 10% increase in operating profit for the first quarter. ARM counts Samsung among its major customers.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,130.66 -0.50%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,706.31 -0.95%
techMARK (TASX) 3,141.35 -0.08%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,575.00p 3.22%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 287.20p 2.68%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 431.50p 2.64%
Next (NXT) 5,505.00p 1.76%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 945.50p 1.72%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,217.00p 1.51%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 222.75p 1.37%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 1,042.00p 1.26%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 993.00p 1.02%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,167.50p 0.97%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Glencore (GLEN) 131.95p -5.82%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,146.00p -5.13%
Pearson (PSON) 825.00p -4.95%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 64.82p -4.79%
Aviva (AV.) 422.00p -4.52%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 549.00p -3.85%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 186.30p -3.82%
St James's Place (STJ) 873.50p -3.43%
Anglo American (AAL) 506.10p -3.14%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,072.00p -2.91%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 99.05p 9.39%
Dunelm Group (DNLM) 948.50p 4.23%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 346.10p 4.22%
NMC Health (NMC) 1,120.00p 3.90%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 274.00p 3.79%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 222.00p 3.59%
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 310.40p 3.12%
AA (AA.) 264.80p 2.72%
Evraz (EVR) 90.80p 2.02%
UDG Healthcare Public Limited Company (UDG) 620.00p 1.97%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 144.50p -9.63%
International Personal Finance (IPF) 259.10p -7.66%
Vesuvius (VSVS) 292.70p -6.66%
Allied Minds (ALM) 398.80p -6.16%
Zoopla Property Group (WI) (ZPLA) 244.90p -5.95%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 194.40p -5.68%
Redrow (RDW) 386.40p -5.43%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 539.00p -4.26%
Homeserve (HSV) 425.60p -4.21%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 340.50p -4.08%