London close: US dollar strength weighs on the Footsie

Stocks in London headed lower into the weekend, as the US dollar´s advance continued to weigh on commodity prices.

The FTSE 100 was down by 0.28% or 18.94 points to 6,775.95 as front month Brent crude oil futures slipped 0.41% to $46.30 per barrel on the ICE and gold futures gave back 0.66% to trade at $1,208.90/oz..

Miners were the weakest segment of the market, especially precious metal outfits, as the broadest measure of the dollar´s strength continued to advance.

The spot US dollar index was 0.39% higher to 101.28 as two officials from the US Federal Reserve pointed towards December as the likely date for the next interest rate hike.

Although those Fed speakers were only reiterating their previously expressed opinions on the matter, both US and UK government bond yiels were pushed higher by traders as a result.

St.Louis Fed president James Bullard said he was "leaning" towards a move on rates in December, while his opposite number at the Kansas City Fed said she preferred moving sooner rather than later.

By the closing bell, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Gilt was up by five basis points to 1.46%, albeit off an intra-session high of 1.50%.

The pound on the other hand was lower versus the greenback, dropping 0.71% to 1.2331, possibly in reaction to remarks overnight from the MPC´s Ben Broadbent indicating the Bank of England could tolerate an overshoot of inflation in order to avoid higher unemployment.

According to Fed funds futures, the odds of a 14 December rate hike in the States stood at 95.4%, versus 90.6% in the previous session, according to the CME´s Fed Watch tool.

Worth noting, heading into next week´s Thanksgiving Day-shortened trading week in the States markets were also looking out to the French Republican party´s primary elections on Sunday, ahead of the 2017 presidential contest, amid worries of another poor showing for the country´s main political parties.

In parallel, the latest polls in Italy continued to point to a defeat for Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi´s attempts at constitutional reform in Rome.

Nevertheless, losses in afternoon trading on Wall Street were slight by the market close in London; indeed the Nasdaq Composite had even managed to notch-up a fresh record high at 5,346.8.

In corporate news, engineering distribution firm Electrocomponents rallied after reporting a 44% jump in first half profits to £55.1m.

DIY company Grafton Group rose as it has agreed to by Dutch ironmonger Gunters en Meuser in order to increase its presence in Amsterdam.

Luxury retailer Jimmy Choo rose sharply as it reported revenue growth for the second half and said it was on track to deliver full-year underlying profits in line with expectations.

Specialty chemicals company Bodycote fell despite posting a rise in revenue in the four months to the end of October.

Flybe flew higher after HSBC lifted the stock to ‘buy’ from ‘reduce’, while Premier Oil nudged up after Jefferies upped it to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,775.77 -0.28%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,659.22 0.33%
techMARK (TASX) 3,317.54 -0.10%

FTSE 100 - Risers

TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,034.00p 3.30%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 3,250.00p 2.49%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 2,063.00p 2.38%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,604.00p 2.24%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 8,795.00p 1.92%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,381.00p 1.84%
Worldpay Group (WPG) 275.70p 1.70%
DCC (DCC) 6,155.00p 1.57%
Sage Group (SGE) 685.00p 1.48%
Carnival (CCL) 4,084.00p 1.47%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Fresnillo (FRES) 1,291.00p -6.86%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 657.50p -5.94%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,790.00p -4.85%
Polymetal International (POLY) 762.50p -3.30%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,089.50p -3.28%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 666.00p -3.13%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,934.00p -2.88%
BT Group (BT.A) 362.90p -2.81%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 625.20p -2.25%
Sky (SKY) 767.00p -2.23%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Electrocomponents (ECM) 451.40p 22.00%
Laird (LRD) 147.70p 6.03%
UDG Healthcare Public Limited Company (UDG) 673.00p 4.83%
Halfords Group (HFD) 334.10p 3.21%
Ted Baker (TED) 2,580.00p 3.15%
Clarkson (CKN) 2,245.00p 3.03%
Allied Minds (ALM) 366.80p 3.00%
Marshalls (MSLH) 293.00p 2.97%
Greencoat UK Wind (UKW) 114.50p 2.60%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 1,792.00p 2.58%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Hochschild Mining (HOC) 220.30p -6.26%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 146.30p -6.10%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 132.20p -5.50%
GCP Infrastructure Investments Ltd (GCP) 127.10p -4.08%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 440.20p -3.38%
Evraz (EVR) 235.80p -2.96%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 180.00p -2.70%
Atkins (WS) (ATK) 1,571.00p -2.66%
Meggitt (MGGT) 448.60p -2.58%
Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 436.80p -2.33%