FTSE 100 movers: Property drags on buoyant mining

The FTSE was underwater but working it was back to dry land late on Wednesday, as the index's raft of heavyweight miners were buoyed by commodity prices.

With an hour's trading left in the day, the blue chip index was down 0.1% at 6,150, with property developers causing the bulk of the subsidence.

Following weaknesss in housebuilders earlier in the week on uncertainty about Britain's future in the European Union ahead of next month's referendum, commercial property giants Land Securities and British Land, together with retail focused Intu Properties and Hammerson were all down at least 1.4%.

Brexit fears have been hitting the wider property market of late and, alongside the Chancellor's comments earlier in the week that property prices will be significantly dampened by a UK vote to leave, at midnight the RICS House Price Balance will be released, with a decline to 38% from 42% expected.

On Wednesday morning, the latest Deloitte London Office Crane Survey revealed 51 new buildings were started over the past six months, the highest number of new starts since records began.

This came despite commercial property values fell in the first quarter for the first time since March 2013.

Also in property news on Wednesday, new London mayor Sadiq Khan's plans for rent controls has been supported by several industry experts.

“This is being described as rent control but it is more properly described as rent indexing, and set at the right level it is completely palatable to investors,” Adam Challis, head of research at estate agency JLL, told the Financial Times.

Among the property fallers was Tui Group, which fell despite first-half revenues beating analyst forecasts as a strong uplift in hotels and cruises helped offset declines in its core tour operator business, where the UK and Northern Europe were broadly flat.

Tui also cut its losses and reiterated its expectation of generating at least 10% underlying EBITA growth for the full year.

"The trading environment continues to be difficult, despite the benefit of lower fuel costs as consumers remain cautious," observed analyst Mike van Dulken.

"Summer trading appears to be in line with the lowered expectations of earlier this year with strong sales for Canary Island holidays, cruises and long haul packages to the Caribbean, but given that we’re in May and the program is only 59% sold suggests we may see further discounting eat into margins as June approaches."

But the strong cruise news from Tui helped fellow seafaring holiday provider Carnival sail into the leaderboard, among the many miners.

Anglo American, Randgold Resources, Fresnillo, Glencore, BHP Billiton, Antofagasta and Rio Tinto dominated the risers thanks to rises in precious metals and copper prices.

Brenda Kelly, head analyst at London Capital Group, said: "Despite some calling for a bottom in the dollar, there is a strong possibility we get another attempt on the $1303 recent gold price high should this momentum carry.

Copper was also on the rise and finding a base around $2.08/lb.

Kelly said one might question the veracity of this: "the price has been under pressure since the beginning of May, having capped out at $2.20/lb and the bias remains to the downside in light of slowing global growth".

Oil was a boost, with Brent crude prices rallying after Shell closed of a key Nigerian pipeline and the effects of Canada wildfires lingered.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,145.08 -0.19%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Anglo American (AAL) 616.50p 5.24%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,170.00p 4.75%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,081.00p 2.56%
Glencore (GLEN) 137.15p 2.43%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,340.00p 2.29%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 3,348.00p 2.20%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 832.80p 2.18%
Carnival (CCL) 3,608.00p 1.83%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 425.20p 1.63%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,033.50p 1.62%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Inmarsat (ISAT) 802.50p -2.43%
Provident Financial (PFG) 2,771.00p -2.08%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,156.00p -1.95%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,049.00p -1.78%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 2,894.00p -1.66%
Intu Properties (INTU) 292.20p -1.65%
British Land Company (BLND) 726.50p -1.42%
Hammerson (HMSO) 581.50p -1.36%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,170.00p -1.18%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 212.70p -1.16%