London midday: Unilever, Cussons, trade fears all drag on FTSE
London stocks had pared earlier gains by midday on Thursday amid worries about a possible trade war between the US and China, while news that Unilever is shunning the UK for new headquarters in Rotterdam did little to boost sentiment.
The FTSE 100 was up 0.1% to 7,140.59 after stocks fell on Wall Street overnight amid renewed worries about a trade war as President Trump looked to impose fresh tariffs on China. According to reports, Trump is looking to levy tariffs on up to $60bn of Chinese imports, with a focus on technology, telecoms and apparel.
Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that TV talkshow host and conservative commentator Larry Kudlow, who was an informal economic adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign, will replace Gary Cohn as the president's top economic adviser.
In currency markets, the pound was down 0.1% against the euro at 1.1282 and 0.2% lower versus the greenback at 1.3938 as investors weighed up rising tensions between the UK and Russia against some encouraging Brexit news.
Brexit Secretary David Davis will go to Brussels on Sunday in what looks like an indication that a deal is imminent, reports Bloomberg, while The Times has seen documents that indicate the UK will be free to sign trade deals during the transition period without permission from the European Union after a climbdown by Brussels.
Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: "Not only are investors concerned about an international trade war, in terms of more UK-specific issues a 25% post-profit warning plunge from consumer goods firm PZ Cussons sparked losses for its FTSE 100 cousins Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever, the latter already upsetting people by announcing it was shifting its main headquarters to Rotterdam."
Unilever fell after announcing it will move its corporate headquarters to Rotterdam from London as it combines its two classes of shares into a single entity while Imperial Leather maker PZ Cussons tumbled on its profit warning.
Housebuilder Persimmon slipped as it appointed Roger Devlin, currently chairman of pub group Marston's, as chairman with effect from 1 June. The company announced back in December that chairman Nicholas Wrigley and Jonathan Davie, chairman of the remuneration committee, has resigned amid anger over their failure to cap directors' earnings under a long-term incentive plan agreed in 2012.
OneSavings Bank was in the red despite posting a 21% jump in full-year profit as the loan book grew and saying it kicked off 2018 with a strong pipeline of new business, as guidance on margins disappointed.
Estate agency Savills declined as it said statutory pre-tax profit for 2017 rose 13% but warned that it expects "some tempering of the strong transaction volumes of recent times in some markets".
Hammerson was under pressure as Goldman Sachs added it to its 'conviction buy' list but Credit Suisse cut the property development and investment company to 'neutral'. Imperial Brands was weaker as Goldman Sachs dropped the stock to 'neutral'.
Meanwhile, as is usual on a Thursday, ex-dividends weighed, with Anglo American, Crest Nicholson, Domino's Pizza, Essentra, Galliford Try, Hammerson, LondonMetric, Millennium & Copthorne, SSP, Spirent Communications and Tritax Big Box all in the frame.
On the upside, Tesco was the top gainer after JPMorgan Cazenove upgraded its stance on the stock 'overweight' from a previous rating of 'underweight' before the Booker offer.
Old Mutual edged higher as it reported a 22% increase in underlying operating profits to £2bn as the Anglo-South African financial services group continued the process of splitting itself up.
Cineworld gained ground as it posted a 23% jump in full-year pre-tax profit while construction and services group Kier was up after reporting a rise in first-half profit and saying it expects double-digit profit growth in 2018.
Retirement products specialist Just Group rallied on the back of a 35% increase in 2017 operating profit Spirax-Sarco pushed higher on better-than-expected full-year results.
Hikma Pharmaceuticals was lifted by an upgrade to 'buy' at Citi and to 'hold' at Jefferies, while TalkTalk rose on the back of an upgrade from Macquarie.
There are no major UK data releases due but in the US, jobless claims, the import price index, NY Empire State manufacturing and the Philly Fed manufacturing survey are all at 1230 GMT.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,140.59 0.11%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,736.35 -0.42%
techMARK (TASX) 3,331.30 0.10%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Tesco (TSCO) 216.30p 2.85%
Shire Plc (SHP) 3,214.50p 2.21%
Prudential (PRU) 1,947.00p 1.51%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 958.20p 1.27%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 4,009.70p 1.10%
NMC Health (NMC) 3,388.00p 1.07%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,754.50p 1.01%
Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 369.20p 0.90%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 696.47p 0.89%
Old Mutual (OML) 253.10p 0.88%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Hammerson (HMSO) 431.00p -5.61%
GKN (GKN) 428.10p -2.19%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 1,936.00p -1.90%
Just Eat (JE.) 751.00p -1.60%
Unilever (ULVR) 3,762.00p -1.53%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,608.50p -1.53%
WPP (WPP) 1,138.50p -1.51%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,484.00p -1.49%
Evraz (EVR) 435.80p -1.43%
Pearson (PSON) 755.84p -1.33%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,057.00p 13.78%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 112.80p 6.82%
Computacenter (CCC) 1,125.00p 5.53%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 5,935.00p 3.31%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 248.00p 3.25%
Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) 1,310.00p 1.71%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 485.68p 1.65%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,961.50p 1.47%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 182.45p 1.36%
Just Group (JUST) 136.80p 1.33%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
PZ Cussons (PZC) 234.19p -15.39%
Dignity (DTY) 932.00p -5.09%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 470.00p -4.86%
Essentra (ESNT) 456.40p -4.72%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 196.50p -4.52%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 387.80p -4.48%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 864.00p -3.95%
Intu Properties (INTU) 205.70p -3.15%
IG Group Holdings (IGG) 799.00p -3.09%
NewRiver REIT (NRR) 292.13p -2.79%