London midday: FTSE dragged lower by mining stocks; IAG bucks trend

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

The FTSE 100 was down 0.9% at 8,064.32, extending earlier losses.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "After a hectic week investors had more to digest in the form of further Chinese stimulus but what has been announced so far doesn’t seem to be moving the needle and the risks to China from a second Trump presidency are now overshadowing efforts to get the economy moving.

"The question on investors’ lips will be whether this encourages Beijing to unveil a bolder package of measures.

"Asian stocks sputtered overnight and the UK-listed miners who are reliant on China for much of their demand were also on the back foot.

"As expected the Federal Reserve followed up the Bank of England’s quarter percentage point rate cut with its own cut of the same quantum overnight. However, news which ordinarily would have drawn a lot of the market’s focus has been pushed down the agenda as attention is turned to the implications of Donald Trump’s return to the White House."

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, saying it was expecting FY24 profit to be £80m lower, FY25 profit to be around £30m lower and profit for FY25 to be hit by £5m.

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) 8,064.32 -0.94%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,499.32 -0.66%
techMARK (TASX) 4,573.44 -0.53%

FTSE 100 - Risers

International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 233.00p 6.49%
easyJet (EZJ) 548.00p 2.09%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 9,842.00p 1.20%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 9,116.00p 1.20%
Pearson (PSON) 1,195.50p 1.14%
LondonMetric Property (LMP) 192.30p 1.00%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,817.00p 0.89%
Relx plc (REL) 3,667.00p 0.77%
Unite Group (UTG) 861.50p 0.76%
BT Group (BT.A) 138.00p 0.73%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Vistry Group (VTY) 710.00p -18.72%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,705.50p -5.70%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,371.00p -4.36%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 377.20p -4.07%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,989.50p -4.07%
Glencore (GLEN) 400.10p -3.68%
Prudential (PRU) 649.20p -3.34%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 695.90p -2.75%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 7,634.00p -2.53%
Tesco (TSCO) 339.70p -2.53%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Wood Group (John) (WG.) 55.65p 11.66%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,491.00p 8.36%
TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 172.80p 4.73%
NB Private Equity Partners Ltd. (NBPE) 1,602.00p 2.30%
Workspace Group (WKP) 560.00p 1.63%
Great Portland Estates (GPE) 310.50p 1.47%
Harworth Group (HWG) 175.00p 1.45%
Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 667.00p 1.21%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 1,202.00p 1.18%
Essentra (ESNT) 156.00p 1.17%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Serco Group (SRP) 158.70p -10.54%
Foresight Environmental Infrastructure Limited (FGEN) 77.20p -8.96%
Greggs (GRG) 2,610.00p -6.99%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 809.80p -6.98%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 238.50p -5.54%
Trainline (TRN) 401.00p -3.79%
Mitie Group (MTO) 115.00p -3.52%
Close Brothers Group (CBG) 212.80p -3.01%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 216.00p -2.92%
RS Group (RS1) 751.50p -2.59%