London close: Stocks mixed with investors on edge over lockdown easing
London stocks closed in a mixed state on Tuesday, with some well-received earnings being offset by reports that the lifting of lockdown measures in England could be delayed by up to a month.
The FTSE 100 ended the session up 0.25% at 7,095.09, while the FTSE 250 was 0.06% weaker at 22,895.50.
Sterling was in negative territory, last losing 0.24% on the dollar to trade at $1.4149, and weakening 0.13% against the euro at €1.1617.
“It’s been a solid day of gains for the FTSE 100 today, however it is struggling to push much beyond the 7,120 level and the highs last week, on a day where markets appear to be drifting higher on inertia more than anything else,” said CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson.
“Not even a partial global internet outage was enough to generate any significant volatility,” he added, referring to issues with the Fastly content delivery system before midday, taking many media and social websites offline around the world.
Reports earlier in the day suggested Prime Minister Boris Johnson would announce a delay to the fourth stage of his so-called ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown next week, amid growing concern about the ‘Delta’, or Indian, variant of Covid-19.
The Times reported a Cabinet source as saying that a delay of between two weeks and a month was likely to allow more time to fully vaccinate over-50s and for the effect of the jabs to kick in.
However, a spokesperson for Number 10 told the Times there was "nothing in the data" to indicate that easing could not go ahead as planned on 21 June.
In equity markets, Intermediate Capital Group gained 5.89% as it increased its fundraising target after an exceptional performance by its investment arm caused annual profit to more than quadruple.
Aviva rallied 2.7% after activist investor Cevian Capital said it had built up a 4.95% stake in the company and called on the insurer to return £5bn to shareholders next year.
British American Tobacco rose 0.4% after lifting its guidance for annual revenue growth at constant currency to more than 5% from an earlier forecast of 3% to 5%, as it attracted more non-combustible product customers and reported a solid performance for tobacco brands.
Paragon Banking Group jumped 11.23% as the buy-to-let specialist lender posted higher interim profits and announced a £40m share buyback as the housing market recovered from the Covid pandemic.
Budget airline easyJet was boosted 0.39% by an upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
Dechra Pharmaceuticals advanced 2.31% after it said full-year revenue was set to be ahead of consensus expectations, as it continued to benefit from strong market fundamentals and lower costs.
On the downside oil giant Shell lost 0.87%, although peer BP reversed earlier losses to close up 1.25%, as oil prices broke into positive territory to rise during the afternoon.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,095.09 0.25%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,895.50 -0.05%
techMARK (TASX) 4,395.61 -0.13%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 2,284.00p 5.89%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 13,755.00p 3.98%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 5,166.00p 3.86%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,340.00p 3.41%
Entain (ENT) 1,788.00p 3.18%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 6,579.00p 3.01%
Aviva (AV.) 422.40p 2.70%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 438.00p 2.70%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,558.00p 2.33%
Schroders (SDR) 3,654.00p 2.30%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 170.05p -1.90%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,475.00p -1.90%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 198.02p -1.87%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 164.15p -1.71%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 48.90p -1.47%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 760.20p -1.30%
M&G (MNG) 245.90p -1.09%
Admiral Group (ADM) 3,083.00p -1.03%
Barclays (BARC) 185.16p -0.97%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 7,935.00p -0.87%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Paragon Banking Group (PAG) 569.50p 11.23%
Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 844.00p 4.46%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 6,579.00p 3.01%
OSB Group (OSB) 481.60p 2.82%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 463.00p 2.48%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 4,252.00p 2.31%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 164.25p 2.08%
Hammerson (HMSO) 42.26p 1.98%
Brewin Dolphin Holdings (BRW) 368.00p 1.93%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 4,658.00p 1.93%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 181.50p -4.72%
CMC Markets (CMCX) 490.00p -3.47%
IWG (IWG) 318.30p -3.22%
Helios Towers (HTWS) 173.80p -2.91%
Network International Holdings (NETW) 383.20p -2.84%
Rotork (ROR) 339.20p -2.58%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 301.00p -2.34%
Just Group (JUST) 100.20p -2.33%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 2,095.00p -2.33%
Trainline (TRN) 267.80p -2.20%