London open: Stocks fall but FTSE up 14% YTD
London stocks fell at the open as the final trading session of 2021 got underway, as investors continued to mull the impact of the Omicron Covid variant.
At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 0.4% at 7,370.23. Nevertheless, that leaves the top-flight index just over 14% higher year-to-date, which would be its best performance since 2016.
David Madden, market analyst at Equiti Capital, said: "It is worrying that case numbers are high, but the low hospitalisation rates are determining the mood in the markets.
"The pandemic has taken many twists and turns in the past two years, but ultimately the fear comes from the possibility of restrictions being imposed, and for the time being, it doesn’t seem as if governments are close to taking action that could cause major disruption to economies.
"At the beginning of the month, stocks were undergoing painful declines on account of skyrocketing case numbers, but when it because clear that hospitals were not going to be overrun by the new strain, traders were quick to pull a U-turn, and start snapping up stocks again. Recently, the FTSE 100 hit a 22-month high, and the DAX hit is highest mark in one month."
Unsurprisingly, there was no corporate news to speak of.
Distribution and outsourcing group Bunzl was the worst performer on the FTSE 100, closely followed by Paddy Power owner Flutter Entertainment.
Precious metals miner Polymetal bucked the trend, along with discount retailer B&M and online supermarket Ocado.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,370.23 -0.44%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,507.09 -0.14%
techMARK (TASX) 4,557.87 -0.51%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,312.00p 0.88%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 637.80p 0.54%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,679.00p 0.30%
Pearson (PSON) 607.20p 0.30%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,646.00p 0.27%
Fresnillo (FRES) 880.20p 0.27%
BT Group (BT.A) 168.40p 0.24%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 746.00p 0.13%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 156.40p 0.10%
Evraz (EVR) 602.20p 0.07%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,843.00p -3.20%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 11,485.00p -1.96%
DCC (CDI) (DCC) 5,986.00p -1.38%
Entain (ENT) 1,670.50p -1.27%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,550.00p -1.24%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,196.00p -1.08%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 121.96p -0.91%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 386.30p -0.90%
Electrocomponents (ECM) 1,223.00p -0.89%
Diageo (DGE) 4,012.50p -0.84%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 219.80p 2.33%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 1,326.50p 1.92%
Currys (CURY) 116.00p 1.22%
Great Portland Estates (GPOR) 740.50p 0.95%
Unite Group (UTG) 1,109.00p 0.82%
Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 105.00p 0.77%
Harbour Energy (HBR) 352.40p 0.69%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 88.20p 0.62%
Brewin Dolphin Holdings (BRW) 368.50p 0.55%
Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust (USA) 316.00p 0.48%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
PureTech Health (PRTC) 288.50p -3.35%
Carnival (CCL) 1,396.80p -2.46%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 270.00p -2.32%
Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 456.00p -1.98%
JPMorgan Emerging Markets Inv Trust (JMG) 125.00p -1.88%
TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 1,620.00p -1.82%
Rotork (ROR) 354.80p -1.72%
Rank Group (RNK) 155.00p -1.52%
Allianz Technology Trust (ATT) 352.00p -1.40%
Edinburgh Worldwide Inv Trust (EWI) 292.00p -1.35%