London’s FTSE 100 was down 1.6% at 7,381.68 in afternoon trade on Friday as investors mulled the latest US payrolls report.
BA and Iberia owner IAG slid after saying it expects to turn profitable from the second quarter as it reported narrower losses in the first three months of the year but announcing plans to scale back its summer ramp up
Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “There is no getting away from the damage inflicted on IAG. Losses well north of €700m are a stark reminder of the long road ahead. A moderation of expansion plans in light of staff shortages, following the issues caused by cancellations more recently, won’t be very well received.
“However, we are finally seeing genuine shoots of progress, with profits expected to sprout from next quarter. At the moment, IAG is in the sticky point of trying to massively ramp up capacity, but planes aren’t quite full enough, or frequent enough, which means the costs associated with getting things going again are stifling profits.”
On the upside, Endeavour Mining was a standout performer for the second day running after well-received first-quarter results on Thursday.
Oil giants BP and Shell both gushed higher as oil prices rose.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 2,068.00p 2.27%
BP (BP.) 428.00p 2.17%
Avast (AVST) 531.80p 1.64%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,584.00p 1.12%
Shell (SHEL) 2,314.50p 0.94%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,342.00p 0.90%
Pearson (PSON) 773.20p 0.62%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 8,550.00p 0.59%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,190.50p 0.52%
BAE Systems (BA.) 762.60p 0.34%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 131.98p -7.91%
Croda International (CRDA) 6,962.00p -6.80%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 776.20p -6.48%
Rightmove (RMV) 565.60p -6.42%
Aveva Group (AVV) 2,149.00p -6.32%
SEGRO (SGRO) 1,120.00p -5.68%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 463.20p -4.42%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 589.20p -4.32%
Sage Group (SGE) 689.60p -3.98%
RS Group (RS1) 959.50p -3.95%
