London close: Stocks stage timid bounce

London stocks staged a timid bounce on Wednesday with the help of a weaker pound and following the heavy losses endured during the previous session.

By the end of trading, the FTSE 100 was up 0.11% to 6,962.98, having fallen 1.24% the day before. Meanwhile, the pound was trading at a six-week low and down 0.67% against the dollar at 1.28962, as the Greenback continued to gain altitude on the back of hawkish comments from Atlanta Federal chief, Raphael Bostic, on Tuesday.

Bostic warned of the risks of allowing the American economy too run too "hot", arguing instead for a continued gradual pace of rate hikes.

Versus the euro, Sterling was essentially flat against at 1.1323, despite the prospect of a no-deal Brexit and jitters ahead of Prime Minister Theresa May's appearance later before the so-called 1922 Committee.

"While it would appear that she may well have headed off a leadership challenge in the short term there remains widespread unhappiness with her Chequers plan amongst rank and file and she is likely to come under further pressure to modify her position to a more unifying one," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.

Data released earlier by the trade body for the banking sector showed that mortgage lending softened in September as higher interest rates started to take effect.

Gross mortgage lending in September was £21.5bn, UK Finance said, down 1.2% on the same period a year ago. The overall number of mortgages approved by the main high street banks was 9.1% lower. Approvals for house purchases were down 10.1%, remortgage approvals were 7.4% lower and approvals for other secured borrowing off 9.8%.

Eric Leenders, managing director of personal finance at UK Finance, said: "The mortgage market softened slightly in September, following strong remortgaging activity in the months preceding the recent base rates."

Mortgage approvals for house purchases fell to 38,505 from 39,241 in August, a six-month low and below a consensus forecast of around 39,000.

This is the second successive month to record a fall in gross lending, as rate rises and the uncertainly around Brexit continue to dominate. In August, the Bank of England increased the cost of borrowing from 0.5% to 0.75%, its first rise since it cut rates following the 2008 financial crisis.

As the pound slid, dollar earners such as Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever racked up strong gains.

Elsewhere, Barclays rallied after the bank's third-quarter income and profits beat City estimates, helped by the corporate and investment banking arm outperforming peers in markets again.

Equiniti was a touch higher after saying it had won pension administration contracts for the UK Atomic Energy Authority and for the Combined Nuclear Pension Plan.

Budget airline easyJet and British Airways owner IAG were both flying higher as Deutsche Bank upgraded the sector to 'overweight' from 'underweight'.

On the downside, Antofagasta reversed earlier gains as it said third-quarter copper production was up 15% quarter-on-quarter and narrowed full-year copper production guidance to 705-725,000 tonnes, with production in 2019 to increase to 750-790,000 tonnes.

Fresnillo slipped as the precious metals miner's third-quarter silver production missed estimates, but gold output was a beat.

Southend airport owner Stobart retreated after saying its interim losses widened to £17.5m from £11.9m the year before.

Metro Bank was in the red after it posted a jump in third-quarter profit as it saw record lending growth, but margins at the challenger bank shrank.

In broker note action, HSBC was cut to 'underperform' at RBC Capital Markets, while Cineworld was downgraded to 'equalweight' at Barclays and Ferguson was cut to 'neutral' by Credit Suisse.

Fast fashion brand Quiz was downgraded to 'hold' by Stifel.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,962.98 0.11%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,406.48 0.30%
techMARK (TASX) 3,265.70 0.37%

FTSE 100 - Risers

BT Group (BT.A) 250.20p 4.05%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 706.80p 3.70%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 801.20p 3.67%
Barclays (BARC) 170.70p 2.98%
Royal Mail (RMG) 363.00p 2.46%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,334.00p 2.19%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 6,729.00p 2.16%
Evraz (EVR) 521.40p 1.96%
Informa (INF) 723.40p 1.69%
Rightmove (RMV) 438.05p 1.66%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,418.00p -4.12%
Fresnillo (FRES) 937.80p -4.03%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 727.20p -3.89%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 1,268.00p -3.68%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,490.60p -2.01%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,412.00p -1.87%
Ferguson (FERG) 5,215.00p -1.83%
Sage Group (SGE) 525.60p -1.79%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 519.80p -1.74%
Aviva (AV.) 413.90p -1.69%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 43.52p 8.53%
Energean Oil & Gas (ENOG) 609.00p 6.28%
Elementis (ELM) 197.10p 4.62%
Playtech (PTEC) 444.50p 4.59%
IWG (IWG) 220.80p 4.40%
Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 114.30p 4.10%
IP Group (IPO) 110.40p 3.76%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 706.80p 3.70%
Renishaw (RSW) 3,804.00p 3.65%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 2,204.00p 3.38%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Metro Bank (MTRO) 2,258.00p -12.28%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 425.20p -4.54%
Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 405.00p -4.12%
Sirius Minerals (SXX) 22.82p -3.81%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 348.10p -2.90%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 167.80p -2.58%
William Hill (WMH) 199.05p -2.38%
Softcat (SCT) 680.00p -2.30%
Diploma (DPLM) 1,197.24p -2.27%
Provident Financial (PFG) 496.70p -2.19%