London midday: Stocks drift lower as investors eye Powell speech
London stocks had drifted a little lower by midday on Wednesday as investors looked ahead to a speech by Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole central banking symposium this week.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.3% at 6,018.80.
IG market analyst Joshua Mahony said recent hopes over a short-term vaccine implementation have been curtailed somewhat despite the shift into final human trials for the likes of Oxford, Cambridge and Moderna.
"Despite rumours that Trump will seek to adopt widespread vaccination using the AstraZeneca/Oxford product, commentary from both AstraZeneca and Moderna highlight little chance of a 2020 implementation," he said.
"The focus looks set to shift from US-China trade and vaccine hopes towards the Fed and central banks, with the Jackson Hole Symposium coming into play. For the firm time in its history, the town itself will fall quiet, yet there are hopes we will nonetheless see fireworks as markets look for guidance on the next stage of the recovery.
"The Fed may have ruled out any short-term shift towards further easing measures, but there are hopes Powell will lay the groundwork for a fresh average inflation targeting policy."
The symposium is due take place virtually on Thursday.
In equity markets, Russian precious metals miner Polymetal was trading lower even as it reported sharply higher interim profits and doubled its dividend, driven by higher gold and silver prices.
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group was also in the red as it said it was reviewing the future of its Bob's Stores business in the US after Nike decided to stop supplying the chain.
On the upside, software group Aveva was a high riser for the second day in a row after agreeing on Tuesday to buy US-based real-time data software maker OSIsoft for $5bn including debt.
Subprime lender Provident Financial surged after swinging to a loss in the first half as revenue fell and bad debts increased but saying that business had picked up in the second half.
FTSE 250 transport operator Go-Ahead gained after securing a two-year bus contract extension in Singapore.
In broker note action, WHSmith was boosted by an initiation at ‘buy’ at Goldman Sachs. Car dealership Inchcape rallied after an upgrade to ‘overweight’ at JPMorgan Cazenove, while Signature Aviation was hit by a downgrade to ‘neutral’ by the same outfit.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,018.80 -0.30%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,671.11 0.53%
techMARK (TASX) 3,825.42 -0.09%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Aveva Group (AVV) 4,833.00p 4.02%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,816.00p 2.10%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 583.50p 1.83%
British Land Company (BLND) 364.40p 1.65%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 813.60p 1.62%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 119.70p 1.61%
Flutter Entertainment (FLTR) 12,410.00p 1.55%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,691.00p 1.55%
Sage Group (SGE) 749.80p 1.49%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,169.00p 1.30%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
ITV (ITV) 59.12p -2.51%
BAE Systems (BA.) 527.20p -1.86%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 8,748.00p -1.71%
National Grid (NG.) 861.20p -1.40%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,359.00p -1.17%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,030.00p -1.12%
Diageo (DGE) 2,571.00p -1.12%
BP (BP.) 271.65p -1.11%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 331.05p -1.11%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 114.18p -1.07%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Provident Financial (PFG) 230.00p 17.53%
Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 683.00p 5.08%
Inchcape (INCH) 507.00p 5.01%
William Hill (WMH) 167.00p 4.24%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 92.80p 4.04%
Grafton Group Ut (GFTU) 738.50p 3.87%
GCP Student Living (DIGS) 141.00p 3.68%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,246.50p 3.53%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 238.30p 3.12%
FirstGroup (FGP) 42.00p 3.09%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Equiniti Group (EQN) 111.80p -4.61%
Signature Aviation (SIG) 259.60p -3.10%
Clarkson (CKN) 2,350.00p -3.09%
PPHE Hotel Group Ltd (PPH) 1,085.00p -2.25%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 164.45p -2.05%
Frasers Group (FRAS) 344.00p -1.94%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 1,546.00p -1.90%
VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Ltd. (VOF) 318.00p -1.55%
Vesuvius (VSVS) 401.80p -1.52%
HGCapital Trust (HGT) 270.00p -1.46%