London close: Stocks finish lower as consumer confidence declines

London stocks ended Friday in the red, after a raft of corporate earnings and a further fall into deflation for the eurozone in April.

At close, the FTSE 100 lost 1.27% to 6,241.89 and the FTSE 250 dropped 1.55% to finish at 16,801.55.

Lloyds Banking Group was under pressure after reporting a 6% drop in first-quarter underlying profit, although this was better than forecast as a reduction in impairment charges, PPI provisions and lower costs counterbalanced a small decline in income.

Anglo American bucked the trend, boosted by an agreement to sell its niobium and phosphates businesses in Brazil to China Molybdenum for a cash consideration of $1.5bn.

Shares in Restaurant Group were tumbling after the company warned over its annual profits, highlighting a further deterioration in trading conditions and announcing the departure of its chief financial officer.

Ophir Energy was another stock under pressure, after the firm revealed before markets opened that it had hit a serious stumbling block at the Fortuna floating liquefied natural gas project, offshore Equatorial Guinea, after it was unable to reach agreement with Schlumberger over an upstream participation arrangement.

Meanwhile, consumer prices in the eurozone fell more than expected in April, according to data released by Eurostat. Prices declined 0.2% on the year, having been steady at a 0.1% drop in March. This was a bigger fall than the 0.1% forecast by economists, with energy prices proving to be the biggest drag as they slid 8.6% on the year.

Core inflation rose 0.8%, missing expectations for a 1% increase.

“Underlying inflation continues to run away from the ECB’s baseline rate of 2%,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

Eurozone economic growth data for the first quarter from Eurostat was more positive. Seasonally-adjusted gross domestic product rose 0.6% compared with the previous quarter when it grew 0.3%. This was stronger than the 0.4% growth pencilled in by economists.

Separately, Eurostat said the eurozone unemployment rate nudged down to 10.2% in March from 10.4% in February and 11.2% in the same month last year. This marked the lowest rate in the bloc since August 2011. Economists had been expecting the rate to remain unchanged at 10.3%.

"The burden of deflationary pressure grew on the ECB this morning as recent monetary policy action appears to not have filtered down into the bloc state. Inflation dropped below forecasts to -0.2% (y/y) in the same month Draghi’s increase in Quantitative Easing commenced - not signalling the start he would have hoped for,” said Alex Lydall of Foenix Partners.

In the UK, consumer confidence declined in April, according to a GfK survey. The sentiment index fell to -3 this month from 0 in March, worse than analysts’ estimates of -1.

The number of mortgage approvals om Britain came to 71,357 last month, down from 73,195 in February, the Bank of England said. Analysts had pencilled in 74,400 approvals.

In the US, personal income came in at 0.4% growth for March, ahead of forecasts of 0.3% and a previous figure of 0.2%. Personal spending growth failed to meet expectations, however, coming in at 0.1% against a 0.2% consensus and a 0.2% reading last time.

University of Michigan’s consumer confidence for April also disappointed, falling to 89.0 from a previous reading of 89.7 and an expected 90.0.

Oil prices began to slip as markets closed, with Brent crude losing 0.61% to $47.85 and West Texas Intermediate giving up 0.22% to $45.93 per barrel.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,241.89 -1.27%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,801.55 -1.55%
techMARK (TASX) 3,059.33 -1.12%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Glencore (GLEN) 162.90p 4.12%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,770.00p 3.75%
BT Group (BT.A) 443.20p 2.06%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 485.20p 1.93%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,261.00p 1.77%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 9,150.00p 1.72%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,113.00p 1.64%
Anglo American (AAL) 763.40p 1.35%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 3,718.50p 0.84%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 361.90p 0.78%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 230.80p -5.72%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 525.00p -4.72%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 669.50p -3.53%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,872.00p -3.49%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 991.00p -3.22%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 452.50p -3.18%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 553.60p -2.98%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 937.50p -2.85%
GKN (GKN) 278.70p -2.82%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,473.00p -2.77%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Centamin (DI) (CEY) 121.60p 8.09%
Rotork (ROR) 187.00p 4.24%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 350.30p 2.10%
John Laing Group (JLG) 212.50p 1.19%
HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited A Shs (HVPE) 945.00p 1.07%
Unite Group (UTG) 634.00p 0.96%
Mitie Group (MTO) 272.50p 0.78%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 806.00p 0.62%
Berendsen (BRSN) 1,184.00p 0.51%
Polymetal International (POLY) 709.00p 0.50%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Restaurant Group (RTN) 274.50p -26.66%
Ophir Energy (OPHR) 75.35p -18.01%
Barr (A.G.) (BAG) 569.00p -7.40%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 931.00p -6.99%
Sports Direct International (SPD) 385.20p -6.50%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,582.00p -6.17%
Cobham (COB) 154.00p -5.58%
Senior (SNR) 217.90p -5.18%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 297.00p -5.14%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 514.50p -4.99%