FTSE 100 movers: Morrisons escapes grocery exodus, travel names fly

The FTSE 100 on Friday recouped some of the losses from the prior day but still finished the week worse off than when it started, and underperforming its smaller sibling as supermarket groups reeled in the wake of Amazon's roaring new blitz into the grocery sector.

After news broke that the US online retail giant had agreed to take over premium grocery group Whole Foods, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer were sent staggering lower as investors feared Amazon new potential to accelerate its attack on the industry.

Tesco's shares initially spiked on the back of strong first-quarter results but when jagged lower on Friday afternoon when news broke from the US of Amazon’s $13.7bn purchase.

Investors in Tesco and Sainsbury's fear Amazon could knock them off their perch as Britain’s number one and two supermarkets, said analyst Jasper Lawler at London Capital Group.

Amazon has an existing relationship with Morrisons, which saw its shares dip sharply before later outperforming those of Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

"Whole Foods has just 9 stores in the UK so the impact on Morrisons (which has its own tie-up with Amazon) should not be too significant, and if anything could support Morrisons if it signals how Amazon might be able to help it grow market share," said Neil Wilson at ETX Capital.

Travel and tourism companies were among the risers as data from the Office for National Statistics showed UK tourism continues to boom thanks to the weak pound, enticing more visitors from around the world to the UK and strongly boosting spending.

Some 3.7m people visited Britain from overseas in April, up 19% year on year, the ONS said on Friday, with overseas residents making 42% more visits to the UK for holidays.

Thomson travel owner TUI, InterContinental Hotels and EasyJet all rose but Premier Inn owner Whitbread gave up its early gains.

BHP Billiton was lifted by the appointment of Ken MacKenzie to succeed Jac Nasser as chairman of BHP Billiton with effect from 1 September following Nasser’s retirement.

MacKenzie - who has extensive international business experience gained during his 23 years at Australian packaging company Amcor - joined the BHP board as a non-executive director in September 2016 and is a member of the Sustainability Committee.

BHP has been under pressure from activist investor Elliott Management in recent months to improve returns and earlier this week the hedge fund said whoever BHP appointed at chairman should "review" and "upgrade" the mining group's board of directors, citing the backing of several other major shareholders.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,447.80 0.38%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,818.06 1.35%
techMARK (TASX) 3,589.58 1.08%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Worldpay Group (WPG) 323.10p 3.56%
DCC (DCC) 7,480.00p 3.46%
Mondi (MNDI) 2,070.00p 2.99%
St James's Place (STJ) 1,216.00p 2.53%
Sage Group (SGE) 715.00p 2.44%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,155.00p 2.12%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 4,391.00p 2.05%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,599.00p 2.04%
Royal Mail (RMG) 444.10p 2.00%
BAE Systems (BA.) 669.50p 1.90%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Tesco (TSCO) 171.65p -4.61%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 252.00p -3.96%
Anglo American (AAL) 967.10p -2.81%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 342.20p -2.73%
Provident Financial (PFG) 2,855.00p -1.55%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 248.70p -1.11%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,583.00p -1.06%
BT Group (BT.A) 290.40p -1.06%
Glencore (GLEN) 280.75p -0.81%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,049.50p -0.76%