London open: Stocks edge lower as focus shifts to Fed speakers

London stocks edged lower in early trade, with miners under the cosh, as investors eyed speeches from several Federal Reserve officials including Chair Janet Yellen.

At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 0.3% to 7,360.38.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans and Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker are both due to give speeches at 1515 GMT, while board member Jerome Powell will speak at 1615 GMT. Vice Chair Stanley Fischer will deliver a speech at 1700 GMT and Fed Chair Janet Yellen is due to speak at 1800 GMT.

CMC Markets’ Michael Hewson said: “This week we’ve heard normally dovish members of the Federal Reserve in Lael Brainard and William Dudley of the New York Federal Reserve state that the time was coming closer to the time for another rise in interest rates."

“This has sent the market probability for a Fed rate rise this month to 90%, a staggering rise from 36% just over a week ago and to a level where the Fed is more or less expected to act."

“This move in expectations hasn’t happened by accident, so Janet Yellen’s speech later today in Chicago about the US economic outlook would be a major surprise if she were to push back against her colleague’s comments from earlier this week. It would also be enormously counterproductive in terms of how the market perceives any future market guidance this year."

Investors were also digesting data out of China, which showed activity in the services sector expanded at the slowest pace in four months last month.

The services PMI slipped to 52.6 in February on a seasonally adjusted basis from 53.1 the month before, the Markit/Caixin services purchasing managers' index showed marking the slowed rate of expansion since October.

Meanwhile, Caixin's composite PMI for the manufacturing and services sectors increased to 52.6 from 52.2 on the back of growth in the manufacturing sector.

Mining stocks were the worst performers, with Fresnillo, Randgold, Antofagasta and Rio Tinto all in the red.

Elsewhere, advertising giant WPP slumped as it posted a rise in full-year profit but said it expects growth to slow this year.

London Stock Exchange Group retreated as it tried to ignore the merger-shaped elephant in the room, reporting strong sales and profits growth and hiking its dividend 20% to reassure investors of its confident outlook.

AstraZeneca ticked lower after saying it has partnered with French pharmaceutical Sanofi to develop and commercialise a respiratory syncytial virus antibody.

Commercial laundry company Berendsen tanked after it posted a jump in full-year profit and revenue but sounded a cautious note on its outlook, saying it will continue to be affected by legacy issues.

Ultra Electronics nudged lower after it signed a memorandum of understanding with CGN of China, that would see both companies co-operate more closely in the field of high integrity instrumentation and control systems and sensors for civil nuclear power within China, the UK and other international markets.

On the upside, Electra Private Equity pushed higher as its portfolio manager Epiris said it its portfolio company AXIO Group had agreed to sell RISI, the information provider for the global forest products industry, to Euromoney Institutional Investor for $125m.

Budget airline Ryanair was little changed after it reported a 10% rise in traffic for February.

WH Smith was on the front foot as Barclays upgraded the stock to ‘overweight’.

On the data front, Markit’s services purchasing managers’ index is at 0930 GMT.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,360.38 -0.30%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,867.27 -0.44%
techMARK (TASX) 3,450.77 -0.37%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Convatec Group (CTEC) 262.50p 2.66%
easyJet (EZJ) 967.50p 0.52%
Standard Life (SL.) 373.90p 0.51%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 246.10p 0.45%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 992.50p 0.40%
BT Group (BT.A) 335.90p 0.39%
DCC (DCC) 7,015.00p 0.36%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 334.50p 0.33%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 203.15p 0.32%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 265.50p 0.30%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

WPP (WPP) 1,801.00p -5.76%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,385.00p -4.81%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,240.00p -1.56%
Capita (CPI) 506.00p -1.46%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 814.50p -1.27%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,161.00p -1.10%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,321.50p -0.98%
Glencore (GLEN) 332.60p -0.98%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,265.00p -0.94%
BAE Systems (BA.) 645.00p -0.85%

FTSE 250 - Risers

WH Smith (SMWH) 1,803.00p 6.18%
Hunting (HTG) 558.50p 3.43%
Rank Group (RNK) 214.70p 2.43%
Brewin Dolphin Holdings (BRW) 312.50p 1.86%
Dignity (DTY) 2,664.00p 1.60%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 173.50p 0.93%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 280.80p 0.72%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 239.80p 0.63%
Hill & Smith Holdings (HILS) 1,160.00p 0.61%
Inchcape (INCH) 783.50p 0.58%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Berendsen (BRSN) 767.00p -17.48%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 239.60p -6.00%
Hays (HAS) 156.40p -3.58%
Cobham (COB) 133.90p -3.39%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 517.00p -3.00%
Redefine International (RDI) 36.04p -2.49%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,435.00p -2.31%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 158.90p -1.73%
Meggitt (MGGT) 460.50p -1.73%
Vesuvius (VSVS) 541.00p -1.64%