London stocks had fallen further into the red by midday on Monday, with travel and leisure firms under the cosh.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.6% at 7,091.52.
Oanda market analyst Sophie Griffiths said: “After a cautious session in Asia, European stocks are edging lower on inflation concerns and as Covid jitters return, threatening to derail the tourist season.
“Stocks across Asia kicked off trading for the week on the back foot amid a spike in Covid cases across the region. In Australia, rising Covid cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant have sent Sydney back into lockdown. Meanwhile, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have also seen pandemic restrictions tighten again, which dragged on sentiment in the session.”
In equity markets, travel stocks were under pressure as German Chancellor Angela Merkel attempts to secure an EU-wide quarantine policy for British tourists. InterContinental Hotels, British Airways owner IAG, Premier Inn owner Whitbread, Upper Crust owner SSP, travel company Tui and budget airlines easyJet and Wizz were all lower.
Susannah Street, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “EU leaders are preparing to meet this week and Germany’s Angela Merkel is hoping to gain approval for a consensus on quarantine to stop the spread of the delta variant. So, it’s looking increasingly likely this summer will be a wash out for the industry after all.”
Luxury fashion Burberry was the worst performer on the FTSE 100 on news that chief executive officer Marco Gobbetti was planning to step down at the end of the year to take up the role of CEO at Italy’s Salvatore Ferragamo.
Ultra Electronics slumped after the aerospace and defence group said it had terminated “very early stages” of exploratory talks with Cobham about a possible combination of some of their units. The shares rallied sharply on Friday on news of a possible deal.
On the upside, High Street bakery chain Greggs rose after it reported a stronger-than-expected recovery in sales from the Covid pandemic since May 10, with like-for-like growth of 1%-3% against the same period in 2019 before the crisis began.
In broke note action, Dr Martens was boosted by an upgrade to ‘buy’ at HSBC, but St James’s Place was hit by a downgrade to ‘hold’ by the same outfit.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,091.52 -0.62%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,579.88 -0.29%
techMARK (TASX) 4,457.89 -0.46%
FTSE 100 – Risers
AstraZeneca (AZN) 8,589.00p 1.06%
Informa (INF) 508.00p 0.87%
Avast (AVST) 497.00p 0.85%
Evraz (EVR) 605.20p 0.83%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 565.00p 0.82%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,807.00p 0.74%
Fresnillo (FRES) 812.20p 0.72%
Phoenix Group Holdings (PHNX) 677.20p 0.71%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,422.80p 0.68%
Halma (HLMA) 2,736.00p 0.55%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Burberry Group (BRBY) 2,092.00p -7.02%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 179.28p -4.37%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,099.00p -3.04%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 4,851.00p -2.59%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 103.80p -2.54%
St James’s Place (STJ) 1,473.50p -1.96%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,507.50p -1.92%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 460.40p -1.88%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,699.00p -1.78%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,887.00p -1.72%
FTSE 250 – Risers
Chrysalis Investments Limited NPV (CHRY) 276.00p 3.76%
HGCapital Trust (HGT) 349.50p 3.40%
Dr. Martens (DOCS) 454.00p 3.28%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 425.00p 3.21%
Softcat (SCT) 1,841.00p 2.73%
Premier Foods (PFD) 109.00p 2.64%
Drax Group (DRX) 435.00p 2.55%
AO World (AO.) 250.40p 2.20%
Capita (CPI) 39.35p 1.97%
Kainos Group (KNOS) 1,483.00p 1.58%
FTSE 250 – Fallers
Ultra Electronics Holdings (ULE) 2,166.00p -5.83%
National Express Group (NEX) 267.60p -4.02%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 390.50p -3.72%
Playtech (PTEC) 452.80p -3.33%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 157.40p -3.32%
easyJet (EZJ) 923.40p -3.31%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 4,853.00p -3.29%
Trainline (TRN) 288.20p -2.96%
SSP Group (SSPG) 283.30p -2.78%
Mitie Group (MTO) 67.10p -2.75%
