London open: Stocks fall after US tech selloff
London stocks fell in early trade on Friday following a selloff in US tech stocks.
At 0855 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.7% at 7,505.06.
Richard Hunter, Head of Markets at Interactive Investor, said: "Investors remain on high alert after another blustery session which saw stocks oscillate between positive and negative.
"Mixed corporate earnings are not helping to lift sentiment. Although the majority of companies who have reported so far have beaten expectations and may in aggregate post growth of over 20%, the outlook and guidance statements have been less inspiring. The impact of the Omicron variant, such as it is, will not wash through fully until the first quarter earnings of 2022 become available."
In equity markets, online supermarket Ocado slid after a German court considered that its IP rights may be invalid and halted its case against AutoStore.
Phoenix Group was under the cosh after abrdn sold just under 40m shares in the company at 660p each in placing to institutional investors, raising proceeds of around £264m. Abrdn was in the black.
IG Group slumped after shareholder TCMI sold 15.5m shares in the online trading platform. The shares were placed 780p each, which is a 7.5% discount to the closing share price on Thursday.
Carnival was weaker after the cruise operator said it had seen a "dampening" in cruise bookings for the second half of the year compared to 2019.
Primark owner AB Foods was knocked lower by a downgrade to ‘sell’ at Goldman Sachs.
Cineworld lost ground after its legal battle with Canada’s Cineplex intensified as the latter submitted a new claim over compensation. Cineplex has filed a cross-appeal to Cineworld’s appeal against a court ruling in December ordering the UK-listed chain to pay CAN $1.23bn (£720m).
On the upside, broadcaster ITV was the standout gainer on the FTSE 100 after an upgrade to ‘overweight’ from ‘equalweight’ at Barclays.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,505.06 -0.65%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,638.92 -0.99%
techMARK (TASX) 4,401.50 -0.63%
FTSE 100 - Risers
ITV (ITV) 113.40p 2.07%
Next (NXT) 7,516.00p 1.18%
BT Group (BT.A) 195.70p 1.11%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,624.00p 0.99%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 380.50p 0.87%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,266.00p 0.80%
Abrdn (ABDN) 240.10p 0.80%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,870.50p 0.75%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,474.50p 0.68%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 126.88p 0.63%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,493.50p -4.26%
Phoenix Group Holdings (PHNX) 657.40p -4.20%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,947.50p -3.49%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,013.00p -3.11%
Prudential (PRU) 1,229.00p -2.85%
Fresnillo (FRES) 618.80p -2.77%
Barclays (BARC) 198.34p -2.56%
St James's Place (STJ) 1,487.00p -2.17%
Sage Group (SGE) 685.80p -2.17%
Croda International (CRDA) 7,718.00p -2.06%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Dr. Martens (DOCS) 300.20p 2.11%
Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 549.50p 2.04%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 248.00p 1.64%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 89.28p 1.34%
Playtech (PTEC) 619.00p 0.90%
Premier Foods (PFD) 115.20p 0.70%
Beazley (BEZ) 500.20p 0.64%
Quilter (QLT) 136.35p 0.52%
Darktrace (DARK) 389.60p 0.41%
Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 166.50p 0.30%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
IG Group Holdings (IGG) 790.00p -6.56%
Carnival (CCL) 1,308.80p -5.67%
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 859.00p -4.56%
Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust (USA) 215.00p -4.44%
Trainline (TRN) 207.20p -4.16%
Reach (RCH) 254.50p -3.60%
Rank Group (RNK) 152.40p -3.54%
Trustpilot Group (TRST) 183.00p -3.38%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 14.35p -3.17%
Edinburgh Worldwide Inv Trust (EWI) 214.00p -3.17%