London stocks ended a lacklustre Monday below the waterline, although Darktrace maintained its stellar gains from earlier in the session after last week’s heavy losses.
The FTSE 100 ended the day down 0.05% at 7,300.40, and the FTSE 250 was 0.24% weaker at 23,539.92.
Sterling was in positive territory, meanwhile, last trading up 0.48% against the dollar at $1.3563, and gaining 0.3% on the euro to change hands at €1.1701.
“In London it’s been a rather muted start to the week despite a rebound from cyber security darling Darktrace,” said AJ Bell financial analyst Danni Hewson.
“The FTSE 250 has struggled to find any cheer and it’s telling that many consumer-facing businesses are among the day’s fallers following some rather down beat consumer confidence data.
“Households are wary, people are worried about how their finances are going to stack up as prices rise further – finances that are already beginning to feel the squeeze.”
On the economic front, retail analysis outfit Springboard reported that footfall across UK shops declined 9.3% week-on-week in the seven days ended 6 November.
It said the greatest drops were in high streets, down 10.9%, and shopping centres, 11.6% lower, versus a drop of only 3.1% in retail parks.
Following the October half-term break, locations most attractive to tourists saw the greatest drops in footfall, with footfall slumping 20.7% in coastal towns, 15.1% in historic towns and 16.6% in regional cities.
Springboard highlighted that the drop back in footfall last week also meant that the gap between 2021 and 2019 levels had widened once again, to -13.4% versus -10.9% in the week before.
“Footfall in UK retail destinations fell back sharply last week, eliminating virtually all the uplift gained in the week before last during the school October half term break,” said Diane Wehrle, Springboard’s insights director.
“However, it is important to appreciate that this was an expected result, as footfall has dropped in the week after the October half-term break in every year since Springboard started publishing footfall benchmarks in 2009.”
In equity markets, cybersecurity firm Darktrace rocketed 12.55% by the close, recovering from heavy losses in the previous week.
The shares got a boost after Berenberg reiterated its ‘buy’ rating and said “any share price capitulation is a result of fear not fact”.
Asset manager Abrdn was up 3.21% after saying it is in talks with private equity firm JC Flowers & Co about a potential acquisition of fund platform Interactive Investor.
Wealth manager Investec Group also gained, advancing 7.06% after lifting its earnings per share guidance for the first half of 2022.
Casino tech firm Playtech rallied 2.54% after confirming it has received a preliminary takeover approach from shareholder Gopher Investments.
Responding to press speculation, the gambling software developer said it is in “early stage and ongoing” discussions with Gopher.
Polymetal International managed a rise of 2.09% after its board approved the construction of the Veduga gold project in the Krasnoyarsk region of Russia.
On the downside, JD Sports Fashion slipped 0.62% after earlier hitting back at reports over a meeting between the retailer’s boss Peter Cowgill and Footasylum chief Barry Brown in an industrial estate car park, leading to claims they may have broken UK takeover rules.
Sirius Real Estate slumped 3.91% after saying it plans to raise £135m in a share placing to help fund the acquisition of commercial property firm BizSpace for around £245m.
In broker note action, TI Fluid Systems was lifted 5.89% by an upgrade to ‘overweight’ from ‘neutral’ at JPMorgan, while Helios Towers was knocked 0.27% lower by a downgrade to ‘equalweight’ at Barclays, and British Airways owner IAG descended 1.54% after a downgrade to ‘market perform’ at Bernstein.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,300.40 -0.05%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,539.92 -0.24%
techMARK (TASX) 4,629.47 -0.50%
FTSE 100 – Risers
Darktrace (DARK) 649.50p 12.47%
Abrdn (ABDN) 263.90p 3.21%
Fresnillo (FRES) 925.80p 2.75%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,399.50p 2.34%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,395.50p 2.20%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 6,386.00p 2.05%
Glencore (GLEN) 360.45p 1.99%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,744.00p 1.91%
Evraz (EVR) 612.20p 1.86%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 289.30p 1.76%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
ITV (ITV) 108.80p -2.86%
British Land Company (BLND) 505.40p -2.39%
Informa (INF) 535.60p -2.33%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 5,228.00p -2.02%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,358.00p -1.98%
Entain (ENT) 2,011.00p -1.81%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 176.92p -1.80%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,480.00p -1.69%
Next (NXT) 7,988.00p -1.65%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 165.00p -1.52%
FTSE 250 – Risers
Investec (INVP) 353.50p 7.06%
TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 286.00p 5.34%
Syncona Limited NPV (SYNC) 207.50p 4.17%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 156.70p 3.30%
Indivior (INDV) 262.20p 3.15%
Energean (ENOG) 916.00p 3.10%
Playtech (PTEC) 726.00p 2.54%
Essentra (ESNT) 312.50p 2.46%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 291.00p 2.11%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 65.22p 2.10%
FTSE 250 – Fallers
Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 194.00p -5.37%
Sirius Real Estate Ltd. (SRE) 132.00p -4.35%
Discoverie Group (DSCV) 1,046.00p -4.21%
Moonpig Group (MOON) 327.00p -3.37%
IP Group (IPO) 119.00p -3.09%
Trustpilot Group (TRST) 315.40p -2.95%
Bridgepoint Group (Reg S) (BPT) 530.00p -2.93%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 206.50p -2.82%
SSP Group (SSPG) 272.60p -2.82%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 190.60p -2.76%
