London close: FTSE 100 limps to mildly lower close after Manchester terror attack

London stocks limped to a mildly lower close as a sombre UK came to terms with the deadly suicide bomb attack in Manchester last night.

The blast, at an Ariana Grande concert in the Manchester Arena, left 22 people dead and 59 injured. Prime Minister Theresa May condemned it as a callous terrorist attack.

General election campaigning has been suspended and a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee was held.

Against this grim backdrop, the FTSE 100 slipped 0.15% to 7,485.29, and the FTSE 250 added 0.04% to 19,920.12. The Dax and Cac 40 advanced, as did the Dow and S&P 500.

"It would appear the 'Trump fade trade' is fading back to the 'Trump trade'," said Jasper Lawler, senior market analyst at London Capital Group.

"European markets edged up while Wall Street opened slightly higher on Tuesday despite the shock of the terror attack in Manchester," he said.

Sterling was down on the dollar and the euro, its decline to multi-week lows linked to the UK's bigger-than-expected budget deficit in April, while public sector net borrowing shrank.

"April's public borrowing figures suggest that the slowdown in GDP growth in the first quarter won't be just a blip," said Pantheon Macroeconomics analyst Samuel Tombs.

The latest Distributive Trades survey from the Confederation of British Industry was no cheerier, showing sales slowed in the year to May following strong growth in April.

"The market became more subdued as Tuesday went on, with little to engender any significant movement," said Connor Campbell, financial analyst at SpreadEx.

"As for the UK, investors' minds were understandably elsewhere," he added in reference to the Manchester tragedy.

Among the FTSE 100 stocks making headway were a good number of US interest rate-sensitive utilities, along with banks, insurers and general financials.

The financial stocks rising included Royal Bank of Scotland, Old Mutual, St Jame's Place, Lloyds Banking Group and RSA Insurance, among a number of others.

Among the utilities pushing higher were National Grid, SSE, Centrica and United Utilities.

Severn Trent declared another chunky dividend and said it planned an enhanced payout for the next three years after spying further potential efficiencies in the business. In the year to end-March, underlying pre-tax profit before interest rose 4.3% to £525m.

Budget airline easyJet flew higher after RBC Capital Markets upped the stock to 'sector perform'.

Retail and mining did not do so well. Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Burberry were all lower in the wider retail sector, while among miners Randgold Resources and Glencore led others south.

Gold-specialist miner Fresnillo said it produced robust financial results for 2016 despite price volatility. It said it was poised to continue to optimise its performance, maintain a strong financial position and deliver considerable long-term value for shareholders.

AstraZeneca said on Tuesday that its Bydureon EXSCEL trial met its primary safety objective in type 2 diabetes patients at a wide range of cardiovascular risk.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,485.29 -0.15%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,920.12 0.04%
techMARK (TASX) 3,587.92 -0.37%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Babcock International Group (BAB) 969.50p 2.97%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,301.00p 2.52%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 313.40p 2.42%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 260.10p 1.76%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,491.00p 1.76%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,954.00p 1.62%
Croda International (CRDA) 3,978.00p 1.56%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,112.00p 1.47%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,680.00p 1.45%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 264.90p 1.26%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Kingfisher (KGF) 359.20p -2.42%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,710.00p -2.35%
WPP (WPP) 1,673.00p -2.16%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 869.00p -2.03%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 387.70p -1.97%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 8,415.00p -1.69%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,240.00p -1.63%
Glencore (GLEN) 291.95p -1.53%
Merlin Entertainments (MERL) 517.50p -1.52%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 342.10p -1.50%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Homeserve (HSV) 777.50p 10.75%
Greencore Group (GNC) 243.80p 7.26%
Allied Minds (ALM) 149.70p 4.74%
Cranswick (CWK) 2,956.00p 4.64%
Syncona Limited NPV (SYNC) 160.50p 4.58%
UDG Healthcare Public Limited Company (UDG) 788.00p 2.87%
NMC Health (NMC) 2,143.00p 2.10%
Evraz (EVR) 192.10p 2.07%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 409.00p 1.94%
Essentra (ESNT) 566.00p 1.80%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Restaurant Group (RTN) 312.90p -7.04%
Aveva Group (AVV) 1,945.00p -4.80%
Hunting (HTG) 549.00p -4.02%
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 158.50p -3.59%
ZPG Plc (ZPG) 358.10p -3.16%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 760.50p -2.31%
AO World (AO.) 146.60p -2.27%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 544.00p -2.25%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 632.00p -2.17%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,156.00p -2.03%