London midday: Miners drag FTSE lower as metal prices slide
London stocks were led lower by mining shares on Thursday as commodity prices fell amid thin trading volumes ahead of the Christmas break.
At 1157 GMT the FTSE 100 had dipped 0.13% to 7,032.46 points.
Oil prices fell after the Energy Information Administration revealed crude inventories rose unexpectedly last week, sending Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate 0.53% lower to $54.17 per barrel and $52.21 per barrel respectively.
IG’s Chris Beauchamp said: “The market has, it seems, broken up early for Christmas. With little in the way of news, the FTSE’s rally is now running out of momentum and continues to wind down. This close to Christmas, it will be hard to find anyone to keep buying, so we should expect the drift lower to continue to the early close tomorrow.”
The only notable UK release on Thursday was the latest survey from GfK, which showed consumer confidence in the nation improved a touch in December, but consumers were markedly more downbeat about the economic prospects for next year.
GfK’s monthly consumer sentiment index nudged up to -7 in December from -8 the month before but expectations for 2017 were at their weakest since just after the Brexit vote in June.
Joe Staton, head of market dynamics at GfK, said: “The past 12 months were a really turbulent year for confidence in the UK as consumers reacted to the dramatic economic and political turmoil of 2016.
“Looking ahead to 2017, against a backdrop of Brexit negotiations, the decline in the value of sterling, and the prospect of higher inflation impacting purchasing power, we forecast that confidence will be tested by the storm and stress (Sturm und Drang) of the year to come.”
Turning to afternoon trade, a raft of US reports are due, including initial jobless claims, Chicago Fed activity, durable goods and the third release of third-quarter gross domestic product at 1330 GMT. Leading indicators, personal income and spending and the PCE deflator are at 1500 GMT.
Meanwhile, Italy’s banking sector remained in focus as Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena failed to pull off a last-ditch rescue plan to secure an anchor investor for its offer of new shares.
With the government expected to step in as early as Thursday, Italian daily Il sole 24 reported that the state rescue is likely to be carried out in different stages and will take two to three months to complete.
In UK corporate news, miners were the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 as metal prices decreased. Antofagasta, Rio Tinto and Glencore were among the those in the red.
Legal & General nudged higher after it poached Ernst & Young senior partner, Jeff Davies, to be its chief financial officer.
Car dealership operator Inchcape rallied after announcing the acquisition of a distribution business focused on Subaru cars and Hino commercial vehicles in South America for £234m cash.
Broadcaster Sky edged lower as Credit Suisse cut its rating on the stock to ‘neutral’ from ‘outperform’ following the offer from 21st Century Fox, but lifted its price target to 1,075p from 980p in line with the offer price.
Broadcaster ITV was on the front foot following an upbeat research note by Macquarie.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,034.20 -0.10%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,852.51 0.60%
techMARK (TASX) 3,332.68 0.15%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Intertek Group (ITRK) 3,390.00p 2.17%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,684.00p 1.91%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,825.00p 1.73%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 8,660.00p 1.70%
Experian (EXPN) 1,546.00p 1.38%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,725.00p 1.33%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,129.00p 1.26%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,168.00p 1.25%
Worldpay Group (WPG) 267.10p 1.21%
ITV (ITV) 202.40p 1.20%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,059.50p -1.67%
Glencore (GLEN) 267.20p -1.64%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 663.50p -1.63%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,274.50p -1.32%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 678.50p -0.95%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 661.10p -0.90%
Barclays (BARC) 226.75p -0.87%
Pearson (PSON) 817.50p -0.85%
Sage Group (SGE) 648.50p -0.84%
BAE Systems (BA.) 591.00p -0.84%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Inchcape (INCH) 683.50p 6.46%
Restaurant Group (RTN) 330.50p 3.15%
Clarkson (CKN) 2,083.00p 3.12%
Rightmove (RMV) 3,827.00p 2.90%
IP Group (IPO) 160.30p 2.76%
SSP Group (SSPG) 387.80p 2.76%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 449.80p 2.46%
Supergroup (SGP) 1,619.00p 2.40%
Virgin Money Holdings (UK) (VM.) 312.50p 2.39%
Allied Minds (ALM) 449.90p 2.39%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 330.00p -3.59%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 357.00p -2.78%
Tullett Prebon (TLPR) 422.80p -2.58%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 303.20p -2.16%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 892.00p -1.98%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,061.00p -1.30%
Worldwide Healthcare Trust (WWH) 2,084.00p -1.23%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,868.00p -1.06%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 463.70p -1.05%
Fisher (James) & Sons (FSJ) 1,561.00p -0.95%