London open: Stocks nudge lower as Russia-Ukraine woes knock sentiment

London stocks nudged lower in early trade on Thursday as tensions between Russia and Ukraine weighed on sentiment.

At 0820 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 0.1% at 7,597.40.

Geopolitical concerns intensified after an unnamed US official said on Wednesday evening that no Russian troops were withdrawn from the border with Ukraine, disputing Moscow’s claim that it was pulling back some forces. The official said that in recent days as many as 7,000 troops have joined the 150,000 already near the border.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "With the Russians saying one thing, and NATO and the US pushing back, saying that Russian troop numbers are rising near the Ukraine border, and that no de-escalation appears to be happening, markets are increasingly becoming susceptible to headline risk.

"This means the phoney war is likely to continue until such time as Russia either de-escalates or decides to push into Ukraine."

Investors were also digesting the latest minutes from the US Federal Reserve released overnight. "The key takeaway from the minutes was that the Fed acknowledges that the current economic situation is very different from the last hiking cycle in 2015-18 and hence why this tightening cycle is going to be different as well, as faster tightening is needed," Danske Bank said.

"This means both faster and more significant QT as well as rate hikes. As Fed Chair Jerome Powell mentioned during the press conference, the committee did not discuss whether 25bp or 50bp is needed at the March meeting, but just that more tightening is needed. We would like to emphasise, however, that we received another higher-than-anticipated inflation print after the January meeting and we now expect the Fed to hike by 50bp in March and a total of 200bp over the course of the year."

In equity markets, Standard Chartered fell as its annual results missed estimates. The bank also unveiled a $750m share buyback, lifted profit targets and pledged higher investment in China. The Asia-focused bank said pre-tax profit doubled to $3.3bn in 2021, but missed the $3.8bn forecast by its own compiled average of 16 analysts.

Elsewhere, Imperial Brands and Beazley lost ground as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.

On the upside, consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser was a high riser after it suffered an £804m annual operating loss caused by the sale of its Chinese infant formula business, but was upbeat about growth. Excluding the sale of the IFCN business, operating profit fell 8.5%, or 2.6% at constant currency, to £2.94bn. Like-for-like net revenue rose 3.3% - better than its guidance - and Reckitt said it was targeting growth of 1-4% on that basis in 2022.

Online grocer and technology group Ocado rallied after saying that it and France’s Groupe Casino had signed a deal to extend their current partnership and create a new joint venture to support the development and management of single or multi-tenanted distribution centres in France.

Aveva gained after it reported solid growth in the third quarter and targeted faster revenue growth to come as the industrial software group left its guidance for the current year intact.

Mondi traded up after the paper and packaging group agreed to offload its personal care components business to Nitto Denko for €615m.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,597.40 -0.08%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,825.72 -0.01%
techMARK (TASX) 4,406.50 0.17%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 6,000.00p 3.32%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,367.50p 1.86%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,997.00p 1.24%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,989.50p 1.09%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,932.50p 0.97%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,415.00p 0.86%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,061.50p 0.71%
Aveva Group (AVV) 2,718.00p 0.63%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 159.35p 0.60%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,726.00p 0.54%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,749.00p -3.13%
British Land Company (BLND) 536.20p -1.97%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 537.80p -1.97%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 797.40p -1.24%
Evraz (EVR) 326.80p -0.97%
Aviva (AV.) 438.80p -0.66%
M&G (MNG) 215.00p -0.65%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 120.96p -0.62%
BP (BP.) 401.30p -0.61%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,825.00p -0.60%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Bytes Technology Group (BYIT) 482.00p 4.78%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 247.80p 3.25%
Pennon Group (PNN) 1,069.00p 2.79%
Renishaw (RSW) 4,922.00p 2.12%
JTC (JTC) 761.00p 1.87%
Worldwide Healthcare Trust (WWH) 3,190.00p 1.27%
Close Brothers Group (CBG) 1,253.00p 1.13%
Network International Holdings (NETW) 232.40p 1.04%
Fidelity European Trust (FEV) 318.50p 0.95%
Safestore Holdings (SAFE) 1,282.00p 0.87%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Beazley (BEZ) 489.20p -2.94%
Petershill Partners (PHLL) 206.00p -2.37%
Capita (CPI) 29.60p -2.28%
NCC Group (NCC) 188.60p -1.36%
Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 113.40p -1.22%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 289.80p -1.16%
RIT Capital Partners (RCP) 2,605.00p -1.14%
Tritax Eurobox (GBP) (EBOX) 103.60p -0.96%
TP Icap Group (TCAP) 130.10p -0.91%
Carnival (CCL) 1,574.20p -0.88%