Sector movers: Metals, travel stocks lower as Greece debt crisis dents trading
Metals, financial services, and travel and leisure stocks led the London market lower on Monday, with the possibility of a Greek debt default becoming a realistic prospect, as talks between the country and its creditors broke down in acrimony over the weekend.
BHP Group Limited NPV (DI)
2,364.00p
16:40 24/04/24
easyJet
536.20p
16:35 24/04/24
Evraz
80.89p
17:30 11/04/24
FTSE 100
8,040.38
16:34 24/04/24
FTSE 250
19,719.37
17:09 24/04/24
FTSE 350
4,419.71
17:09 24/04/24
FTSE All-Share
4,374.06
16:44 24/04/24
Industrial Metals & Mining
6,837.59
17:09 24/04/24
InterContinental Hotels Group
8,120.00p
16:35 24/04/24
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI)
176.95p
16:40 24/04/24
Lonmin
75.60p
11:03 14/06/19
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels
687.00p
17:00 10/10/19
Mining
10,520.27
17:09 24/04/24
Rio Tinto
5,450.00p
16:40 24/04/24
Ryanair Holdings
€15.20
18:30 22/01/21
Thomas Cook Group
3.45p
16:45 20/09/19
Travel & Leisure
7,630.10
17:09 24/04/24
TUI Travel
437.60p
16:59 11/12/14
The blue chip FTSE 100 closed down 1.97% or 133.22 points at 6620.48, with not a single stock listing category trading in the green.
Industrial metal and mining companies bore the brunt of a tepid day on the London Metal Exchange, with the three-month futures contracts of primary aluminium (down 1.6%), lead (down 1.1%), nickel (down 6.4%), tin (down 2.5%) and zinc (down 1.0%) trading down on fears of lower demand.
Companies with exposure to the metals market left bearing the brunt included - Evraz (down 2.66%), Kaz Minerals (down 1.90%), Ferrexpo (down 1.80%), Lonmin (down 1.69%) and First Quantum Minerals (down 1.25%) - all of which traded sharply lower along with much of the sector.
Blue chips Anglo American (down 1.02%), Antofagasta (down 0.77%), Glencore (down 1.31%) and Rio Tinto (down 0.63%) were in the red as well.
Greece also dragged financial service shares lower as the City grappled with negative sentiment emanating from Athens and growing fears that economic malaise could spread to the wider Eurozone. Henderson Group (down 4.65%), Jupiter Fund Management (down 3.60%), Close Brothers (down 3.11%), Schroders (3.02%) and Hargreaves Lansdown (down 2.51%) were among the many to take a hit.
Finally, travel and leisure stocks dropped sharply as investors expressed concerns about Greece and the impact of potential social unrest on the travel market, while sentiment was dampened further by the recent terrorist attack at a hotel in Tunisia. TUI and Thomas Cook led the sector sell-off shedding 7.10% and 3.74% respectively.
Hoteliers – IHG (down 3.44%) and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (down 1.20%) - also traded lower, as did airlines Ryanair (down 2.68%), EasyJet (down 2.09%) and IAG (down 4.14%), the holding company of British Airways and Iberia.
In case of the latter, a drop in share prices was even deeper owing to a European Commission investigation delaying its proposed takeover of Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus.