London stocks closed below the waterline on Tuesday, with miners under the cosh as investors mulled results from the likes of BP and Standard Chartered.
The FTSE 100 ended the session down 0.19% at 7,274.81, and the FTSE 250 was off 0.31% at 23,140.00.
Sterling was also under pressure, last trading down 0.42% on the dollar at $1.3607, and weakening 0.18% against the euro to €1.1752.
“London markets seem to have left the party early with all indices failing to make gains,” said AJ Bell financial analyst Danni Hewson.
“Miners and BP have kept the FTSE 100 in the doldrums, the former responding to commodity prices and the latter failing to delight investors who question how long revenues can be buoyed up by the current climate.
“And updates from Standard Chartered and Flutter were met with disappointment as both, for different reasons, delivered disappointing outlooks.”
Hewson said it was “all about outlook”, with much uncertainty about how the next six months would play out.
“One bright spot on the FTSE 100 was delivered by AstraZeneca, helped by a triple whammy with investors thinking about their future strategy, a deal to supply more jabs to Vietnam and a nice warm glow courtesy of it’s big rival over on Wall Street.
“Pfizer delivered a barnstorming performance with its latest earnings report, beating expectations and raising its forecast.
“Other US vaccine makers got a similar lift to their share price as booster programmes pick up pace.”
In equities, miners were among the biggest losers as copper and iron ore prices fell, with BHP down 2.95%, Anglo American off 3.29%, Rio Tinto behind 2.19%, and Glencore 3.18% weaker.
Iron ore pellets exporter Ferrexpo was also sharply lower, finishing the day off 6.6%.
Paddy Power owner Flutter Entertainment slumped 7.7% after it posted a jump in third-quarter revenue, but downgraded its earnings guidance for the year due to unfavourable sports results in October and its temporary Netherlands exit.
Standard Chartered dropped 7.85% despite saying that underlying pre-tax profit rose 44% to $1.08bn in the third quarter as income rose and bad debts fell sharply.
The Anglo-Asian bank said it expected annual income to be similar to the year before on a constant currency basis, but to be lower in the fourth quarter than in the third.
“Standard Chartered beat expectations in its results this morning, but after a 24% bounce from the October low to yesterday’s close, investors are relearning the phrase: ‘it is better to travel than to arrive’,” quipped Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG.
“Still, there was plenty to like in the numbers, even if the outlook was rather cautious.”
BP closed down 3.38% after the energy giant said surging oil and gas prices had helped it to report better-than-expected third quarter profits as demand for its products soared on the back of economic recovery from the Covid pandemic.
TP Icap tumbled 10.92% after it said annual revenue would be similar to 2020, following increased volatility, as trading volumes sent third-quarter income higher for the interdealer broker.
Greencoat UK Wind was in the red by 4.96% after announcing a discounted equity raising to help fund the £250m acquisition of a stake in the Burbo Bank Extension offshore wind farm in the UK.
New shares were being offered at 132p each, a 6.5% discount to Monday’s closing price.
Greencoat said it was buying a 25% stake in the wind farm from AIP, in partnership with pension funds investing through Greencoat Renewable Income, a fund also managed by Greencoat Capital.
On the upside, Rentokil Initial was boosted 1.85% by an upgrade to ‘hold’ from ‘sell’ at Berenberg.
Chemring was up 2.94% after it said full-year adjusted operating profit was set to be in line with consensus expectations.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,274.81 -0.19%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,140.00 -0.31%
techMARK (TASX) 4,579.72 -0.29%
FTSE 100 – Risers
AstraZeneca (AZN) 9,427.00p 3.16%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 607.40p 2.12%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,757.00p 2.04%
Informa (INF) 534.80p 1.91%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,610.00p 1.66%
Next (NXT) 8,312.00p 1.56%
Diageo (DGE) 3,713.50p 1.56%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,605.00p 1.44%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 15,935.00p 1.40%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 152.70p 1.39%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Standard Chartered (STAN) 463.20p -8.42%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 12,955.00p -7.70%
Darktrace (DARK) 632.50p -7.19%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,361.00p -5.39%
Pearson (PSON) 590.00p -4.38%
Fresnillo (FRES) 852.80p -3.68%
BP (BP.) 344.25p -3.57%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,720.00p -3.29%
Glencore (GLEN) 354.25p -3.18%
BHP Group (BHP) 1,867.20p -2.95%
FTSE 250 – Risers
Chemring Group (CHG) 298.00p 2.94%
HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited A Shs (HVPE) 2,580.00p 2.79%
Volution Group (FAN) 507.00p 2.74%
Games Workshop Group (GAW) 9,745.00p 2.63%
Bridgepoint Group (Reg S) (BPT) 523.00p 2.55%
Tyman (TYMN) 386.50p 2.38%
Energean (ENOG) 924.00p 2.38%
Ibstock (IBST) 203.80p 2.31%
Drax Group (DRX) 550.50p 2.23%
Greencore Group (CDI) (GNC) 133.30p 2.15%
FTSE 250 – Fallers
TP Icap Group (TCAP) 141.00p -10.28%
Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 106.00p -9.25%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 291.60p -6.60%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 200.90p -5.19%
Greencoat UK Wind (UKW) 134.20p -4.96%
NCC Group (NCC) 234.50p -4.48%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 235.40p -3.92%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 145.20p -3.90%
Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 817.20p -3.70%
Hammerson (HMSO) 31.00p -3.70%
