London open: Bank jitters, bond yield back-up weigh on Footsie

London stocks edged lower at the start of trading, weighed down by jitters surrounding euro area lenders such as Deutsche Bank and Monte dei Paschi di Siena and a back-up in bond yields during the previous session.

Against that backdrop, as of 0826BST the Footsie was down by 0.24% or 16.38 points to 6,942.04.

Even shares of Barclays were lower at the start of the day, despite the lender having posted third quarter profits which were comfortably ahead of analysts' forecasts.

Of interest, according to the Financial Times the Bank of England has asked big UK lenders to detail their exposure to Deutsche Bank and some of the largest Italian banks, including Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

The back-up in longer-term bond yields in the previous session came amid a glut of issuance by governments and corporates, with Gilts under added pressure after the BoE signalled that it was only willing to look through an overshoot inflation to an extent.

Focus in Thursday´s trading session was expected to be on the first reading on UK gross domestic product for the third quarter, alongside results from Alphabet and Amazon.com after the close of trading in the US.

In corporate news, Barclays reported a 35% rise in third-quarter pre-tax profit to £837m as revenue from the fixed income division surged 40%. Excluding extraordinary items the lender posted quarterly profits of £1.7bn (consensus: £1.53bn).

Information and analytics company RELX Group said its outlook remains unchanged and it expects underlying revenue, profit and earnings to increase for the full year. In a trading statement for the first nine months of the year, underlying revenue grew 4%, compared to last year, as the FTSE 100 company bought 15 content, data and exhibition assets for about £330m.

Telecommunications provider BT Group announced its results for the second quarter and half year to 30 September on Thursday, with reported revenue up 35%, and growth in underlying revenue - excluding transit adjusted for the acquisition of EE - up 1.1%.The FTSE 100 firm reported earnings per share down 10%, though adjusted earnings per share were up 4%.Underlying EBITDA adjusted for the acquisition of EE was up 0.9%, and the board declared an interim dividend of 4.85p, up 10%

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,927.25 -0.44%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,560.12 -0.62%
techMARK (TASX) 3,404.97 -0.19%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Barclays (BARC) 184.85p 1.68%
BT Group (BT.A) 392.30p 1.21%
National Grid (NG.) 1,058.00p 0.76%
Sage Group (SGE) 716.50p 0.49%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 934.00p 0.43%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,316.00p 0.39%
Worldpay Group (WPG) 281.50p 0.36%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 7,217.00p 0.18%
Relx plc (REL) 1,430.00p 0.07%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 3,882.50p 0.05%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Barratt Developments (BDEV) 447.30p -6.01%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 506.50p -3.15%
Wolseley (WOS) 4,245.00p -2.48%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,210.50p -2.38%
Provident Financial (PFG) 2,979.00p -2.04%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 415.00p -1.82%
British Land Company (BLND) 582.00p -1.77%
Glencore (GLEN) 236.80p -1.68%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 989.50p -1.44%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,000.00p -1.20%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Vesuvius (VSVS) 364.10p 4.57%
AO World (AO.) 168.00p 2.44%
Debenhams (DEB) 54.85p 2.14%
Fidessa Group (FDSA) 2,344.00p 2.09%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 699.50p 1.82%
Bodycote (BOY) 596.50p 1.53%
Ascential (ASCL) 290.00p 1.51%
LondonMetric Property (LMP) 150.50p 1.28%
JPMorgan American Inv Trust (JAM) 357.90p 0.93%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,211.00p 0.92%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Berendsen (BRSN) 1,050.00p -14.70%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 505.50p -13.66%
Galliford Try (GFRD) 1,244.00p -4.67%
Hunting (HTG) 494.10p -2.64%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 225.90p -2.38%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 154.30p -2.34%
Zoopla Property Group (ZPLA) 302.60p -2.26%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 850.00p -2.19%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 683.00p -2.08%
Cobham (COB) 141.80p -2.07%