London close: Equities drop after worse-than-forecast non-farms

Equities in the UK market ended lower on Friday after the US non-farm payrolls report missed forecasts.

American employers added 173,000 jobs in August following an upwardly revised 245,000 in July, data released on Friday by the Labor Department showed.

The figure was the smallest gain in five months and fell way short of the 215,000 figure analysts had expected. Nonetheless, the previous two months' tallies were revised higher by a combined 44,000. The unemployment rate fell to 5.1% from 5.3% to reach its lowest level since April 2008, while employment gains for July and June were revised up by a combined 44,000.

“August’s employment report is fairly mixed and can be used to make a case for or against a rate hike at the upcoming FOMC meeting,” said Capital Economics. “As far as we’re concerned, the September meeting is a 50-50 toss up. Nevertheless, even if the Fed doesn’t hike rates this month, it won’t leave rates at near-zero for much longer given that it either has (or is close to) fulfilling the full employment part of its dual mandate.”

Following the jobs report, Richmond Fed president Jeffrey Lacker described it as “a pretty much right down the middle of the fairway sort of employment report”. He added that direct implications of the recent market turmoil for the US economy appear to be quite limited.

“I am not arguing that the economy is perfect, but nor is it on the ropes, requiring zero interest rates to get it back into the ring,” Lacker said in the text of a speech delivered on Friday.

“It’s time to align our monetary policy with the significant progress we have made.”

Back over on this side of the pond, a BDO survey showed UK retail sales in August were the weakest since the financial crisis, falling 4.3% compared to the same month last year. BDO's research found that most parts of the high street suffered as the summer rains swept in, with sales of fashion falling 5.5%, homewares knocked 3.3% lower and lifestyle goods down 1.3% year-on-year.

British new car registrations surged in August, as buyers were buoyed by new financing deals, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said. New car registrations jumped 9.6% year-on-year last month to 79,060 units, after growing 3.2% in July and 12.9% in June.

Eurozone retail sales activity expanded at a slower pace in August, Markit revealed. The purchasing mangers' index fell to 51.4 last month from 54.2 in July. However, it was above the 50 level that separates expansion from contraction.

Among corporate stocks, GVC Holdings slumped despite finally beating rival 888 Holdings in the battle for online gambling group Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment. Bwin’s shares rose.

Next was a top faller following the BDO survey and a downgrade by Exane BNP Parabas from ‘neutral’ to ‘underperform’.

Anglo American dropped amid news the company is in talks to sell its Rustenburg platinum mines in South Africa to Sibanye Gold.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals rose after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ and lifted its price target to 2,840p from 2,210p. “We see the acquisition of Roxane Labs as the realisation of large transformational M&A that we had expected to be a key catalyst.” GS said the deal makes Hikma the sixth-largest player in the US generics market and offers potential to further improve its market position, with the acquired high-value pipeline playing a key role.

Oil giant BP was under the cosh after Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded it to ‘underperform’ from ‘neutral’ and slashed its price target to 330p from 420p.

Engineering group GKN was also under pressure after Investec downgraded the stock to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ and cut its price target to 300p from 370p.

More general, heavily-weighted mining stocks suffered the brunt of the losses, with Glencore, Antofagasta, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Fresnillo all in the red as metals prices declined across the board, with the exception of aluminium.

Market Movers
techMARK 3,059.92 -1.44%
FTSE 100 6,042.92 -2.44%
FTSE 250 16,808.02 -1.63%

FTSE 100 - Risers
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,350.00p +0.30%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 565.00p +0.09%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Anglo American (AAL) 668.50p -7.79%
Glencore (GLEN) 123.15p -5.96%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 564.50p -5.36%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,052.00p -5.23%
BP (BP.) 337.90p -5.04%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,235.00p -4.53%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 412.30p -4.32%
Fresnillo (FRES) 596.00p -4.18%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 3,722.00p -4.12%
Experian (EXPN) 1,052.00p -4.01%

FTSE 250 - Risers
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 379.70p +2.07%
NMC Health (NMC) 759.50p +1.88%
Booker Group (BOK) 178.20p +1.14%
BBA Aviation (BBA) 297.50p +1.12%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 6,065.00p +1.00%
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 336.60p +0.93%
Computacenter (CCC) 780.00p +0.65%
3i Infrastructure (3IN) 167.00p +0.60%
HICL Infrastructure Company Ltd (HICL) 152.80p +0.53%
AL Noor Hospitals Group (ANH) 854.50p +0.53%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Vedanta Resources (VED) 511.00p -12.43%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 149.70p -8.16%
Premier Oil (PMO) 94.50p -7.17%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 200.40p -6.92%
Lonmin (LMI) 27.44p -5.25%
Hunting (HTG) 469.80p -5.24%
Serco Group (SRP) 105.50p -5.21%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 778.50p -4.65%
Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 110.00p -4.51%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 845.00p -4.14%

FTSE TechMARK - Risers
UCW Limited (UCW) A$0.01 +7.14%
Torotrak (TRK) 6.37p +4.51%
Dialight (DIA) 627.00p +3.47%
Gresham Computing (GHT) 104.00p +1.96%
Skyepharma (SKP) 338.00p +1.50%
CML Microsystems (CML) 352.50p +1.44%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 80.00p +0.95%
Ricardo (RCDO) 889.50p +0.79%
SDL (SDL) 370.25p +0.61%
IShares Euro Gov Bond 7-10YR UCITS ETF (IEGM) € 200.65 +0.34%

FTSE TechMARK - Fallers
Triad Group (TRD) 37.50p -8.54%
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 7.50p -4.82%
XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 1,575.00p -3.67%
KCOM Group (KCOM) 93.00p -3.12%
BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) 17.62p -2.76%
RM (RM.) 170.00p -2.58%
Filtronic (FTC) 7.12p -1.72%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 818.50p -1.56%
Sepura (SEPU) 175.75p -0.99%
Innovation Group (TIG) 39.75p -0.62%