London open: Stocks fall on disappointing Chinese data

UK stocks declined on Monday after Chinese data released over the weekend missed expectations.

China’s industrial output rose 6% year-on-year in April, compared with 6.8% growth a month earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Saturday. Analysts had predicted a 6.6% increase.

Retails sales in China grew 10.1% in April compared to a year ago, following a 10.5% year-on-year rise in March, missing forecasts for a 10.6% gain.

Fixed-asset investment in urban areas climbed 10.5% year-over-year in the January-to-April period, compared with an annual increase of 10.7% for the first three months of 2016. It compared to estimates for a 11.0% rise.

“The drop in retail sales is particularly worrying given that they had been on an upward track since May last year and in the last couple of months the trend has reversed sharply from over 11% at the end of the last quarter of 2015,” said Michael Hewson, senior market analyst at CMC Markets.

“While there was a bit of a pickup in March this now looks like it was simply a Chinese New Year inspired spike.”

Turning to Monday’s agenda there are no notable releases on the economic calendar and German markets are closed for trading due to a holiday.

Meanwhile, oil prices jumped after Goldman Sachs said the market had finished almost two years of oversupply and moved to a deficit following global production disruptions.

Brent crude rose 2.08% to $48.85 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate increased 1.8% to $47.10 per barrel at 0910 BST.

Oil producers BHP Billiton, Royal Dutch Shell and Tullow Oil rallied on the increase in crude prices.

Mining stocks were also sitting higher including Anglo American, Antofagasta, Fresnillo and Glencore as metal prices advanced.

Going the other way, British Land slumped despite saying its full year net asset value rose in the face of concerns of a jittery market.

Dealer broker ICAP declined after reporting a drop in revenue and profit in the year to 31 March, blaming challenging markets.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,115.50 -0.37%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,637.22 -0.08%
techMARK (TASX) 3,037.01 -0.61%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Anglo American (AAL) 612.50p 5.93%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 426.10p 3.47%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,142.00p 2.42%
Glencore (GLEN) 133.85p 2.06%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 838.30p 1.88%
Tesco (TSCO) 164.15p 1.55%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,230.00p 1.05%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,009.00p 0.85%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,746.00p 0.81%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,739.50p 0.78%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Old Mutual (OML) 166.40p -1.60%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,070.00p -1.55%
Carnival (CCL) 3,576.00p -1.49%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,148.00p -1.46%
BT Group (BT.A) 433.85p -1.43%
Relx plc (REL) 1,217.00p -1.38%
Provident Financial (PFG) 2,798.00p -1.37%
British Land Company (BLND) 710.50p -1.32%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 865.00p -1.31%
Prudential (PRU) 1,260.50p -1.29%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Victrex plc (VCT) 1,511.00p 5.66%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 156.40p 5.46%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 258.50p 4.02%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 543.50p 3.52%
Evraz (EVR) 119.10p 3.39%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 192.60p 3.05%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 379.30p 2.93%
Ophir Energy (OPHR) 68.85p 2.76%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 287.50p 2.31%
Rotork (ROR) 196.30p 2.29%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 251.80p -3.52%
Drax Group (DRX) 305.40p -2.68%
Hastings Group Holdings (HSTG) 182.00p -1.73%
Investec (INVP) 474.00p -1.62%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 261.50p -1.51%
Ladbrokes (LAD) 113.50p -1.39%
Britvic (BVIC) 715.00p -1.24%
John Laing Group (JLG) 212.10p -1.21%
Ibstock (IBST) 205.00p -1.20%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 266.50p -1.19%