London close: Monday malaise stifles FTSE as House of Lords debates Brexit bill
Equities in London turned in a Monday performance laden with malaise, with Unilever a notable faller as its bid premium evaporated, the US was closed for Presidents Day holiday and lively Brexit discussions began in the UK House of Lords.
Aerospace and Defence
10,409.35
12:00 19/04/24
Antofagasta
2,237.00p
12:00 19/04/24
Banks
3,851.96
11:59 19/04/24
Barratt Developments
440.80p
12:00 19/04/24
Beverages
22,298.44
12:00 19/04/24
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI)
2,430.00p
12:00 19/04/24
Direct Line Insurance Group
192.00p
11:59 19/04/24
Food & Drug Retailers
3,692.68
12:00 19/04/24
Food Producers & Processors
7,588.22
12:00 19/04/24
FTSE 100
7,834.59
12:00 19/04/24
FTSE 250
19,281.40
12:00 19/04/24
FTSE 350
4,308.65
12:00 19/04/24
FTSE All-Share
4,264.91
12:00 19/04/24
FTSE Small Cap
6,326.49
12:00 19/04/24
Gas, Water & Multiutilities
5,928.88
12:00 19/04/24
Glencore
470.00p
12:00 19/04/24
Hammerson
26.26p
11:59 19/04/24
Household Goods & Home Construction
12,245.99
12:00 19/04/24
Imperial Brands
1,760.00p
12:00 19/04/24
Insurance (non-life)
3,598.89
12:00 19/04/24
Interserve
6.05p
16:54 15/03/19
Mining
10,700.72
11:59 19/04/24
NATWEST GROUP
273.90p
12:00 19/04/24
Real Estate Investment Trusts
2,199.09
12:00 19/04/24
Reckitt Benckiser Group
4,126.00p
12:00 19/04/24
Rolls-Royce Holdings
396.50p
12:00 19/04/24
Severn Trent
2,441.00p
12:00 19/04/24
Support Services
10,376.86
12:00 19/04/24
Tesco
280.60p
12:00 19/04/24
Tobacco
26,009.51
12:00 19/04/24
Unilever
3,807.00p
12:00 19/04/24
Vistry Group
1,109.00p
11:54 19/04/24
The FTSE 100 closed down 0.0% to 7,299.86 and the FTSE 250 ended up 0.21% to 18,746.22. Across Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 and DAX were up, but the CAC 40 slipped.
"A day without US traders is usually a day for twiddling thumbs in European markets, and today has been no exception," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG.
"Friday’s bounce in risk assets has seen no real follow through across European and UK bourses," he said, noting the focus on Unilever.
Unilever sank more than 6% as Kraft Heinz ditched its takeover plans, just two days after it emerged the London-listed consumer goods giant had rejected a $143bn offer.
Unsurprisingly, the FTSE 350 index for personal goods, which features Unilever, was down more than 5%. It was followed by drops of roughly 1% by the 350 indices for household goods and food producers, while that for miners rose by more than 1%.
Blue-chip stocks figuring lower included Reckitt Benckiser, Imperial Brands, Coca-Cola HBC and Tesco. Also falling were housebuilders led by Barratt Developments, and utilities guided by Severn Trent.
Of those heading higher were Royal Bank of Scotland, Rolls-Royce and Hammerson. Miners were led up by Antofagasta and Glencore, and were followed by several insurers and banks.
Meantime, it was the House of Lords' discussion on UK's Brexit Bill that traders focused on, with Prime Minister Theresa May needing this to be passed into law before she can trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
Once that was triggered, UK would have up to two years before it finally quit the bloc, this following last year's divisive referendum that laid the foundations.
"Whilst Parliament decided it was largely down to the Prime Minister to decide when to enact Article 50, there are fears that the House of Lords will attempt to make amendments," said another from IG, market analyst Joshua Mahony.
Overall, however, SpreadEx financial analyst Connor Campbell summed it up when he said that the FTSE was broadly flat, struggling with both Unilever's decline and the pound's rebound.
"Talking of sterling, the currency maintained a half a percent rise against the dollar (likely affected by the US holiday) and 0.3% against the arguably Greece-worried euro," Campbell said.
In corporate news, house-builder Bovis Homes slumped after it reported a 3% drop in full-year pre-tax profit to £155m that fell short of analysts’ expectations.
Shares in Interserve tanked after the construction and support services group said exiting the energy-from-waste market was likely to cost ÂŁ160m, up from a previous provision of ÂŁ70m.
On the upside, Royal Bank of Scotland rallied after saying it will abandon plans to sell its Williams & Glyn business and instead provide funds to help challenger banks, if a Treasury proposal is accepted by the European Commission.
Retail property group Hammerson gained ground as it said full year adjusted profits rose 9.4% to ÂŁ230.7m on a jump in net rental income to ÂŁ346.5m from ÂŁ318.6m.
Direct Line racked up healthy gains after the insurer said new rules determining lump sum payouts for injury claims would have less of an impact on the company than it previously thought.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,299.86 -0.00%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,746.22 0.21%
techMARK (TASX) 3,356.27 0.11%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 258.90p 6.81%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 708.00p 6.31%
Hammerson (HMSO) 588.50p 4.25%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 858.50p 2.57%
Merlin Entertainments (MERL) 501.50p 2.39%
Glencore (GLEN) 327.00p 2.36%
BT Group (BT.A) 323.30p 2.28%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 361.90p 2.26%
Standard Life (SL.) 375.40p 2.23%
Aviva (AV.) 505.50p 1.42%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Unilever (ULVR) 3,548.00p -6.56%
Pearson (PSON) 642.50p -3.89%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 802.00p -3.14%
Capita (CPI) 514.00p -1.53%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,571.00p -1.46%
ITV (ITV) 203.10p -1.17%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 3,737.00p -1.16%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 514.50p -1.15%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 175.60p -1.07%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 765.00p -1.03%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Ascential (ASCL) 317.80p 3.75%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 269.00p 3.74%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 397.00p 2.53%
Fidessa Group (FDSA) 2,496.00p 2.46%
SIG (SHI) 111.10p 2.40%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 470.70p 2.33%
Rank Group (RNK) 208.30p 2.31%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 270.70p 2.27%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 628.50p 2.20%
AO World (AO.) 160.00p 2.04%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 755.00p -10.23%
BGEO Group (BGEO) 2,920.00p -5.99%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 2,872.00p -2.25%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,668.00p -2.23%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,080.00p -1.82%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 529.00p -1.76%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 422.50p -1.74%
CYBG (CYBG) 269.80p -1.71%
Vesuvius (VSVS) 456.80p -1.62%
Elementis (ELM) 300.10p -1.57%