FTSE 100 movers: InterContinental Hotels falls amid HK chaos, Burberry down on trade and tariffs

London's FTSE 100 was 0.28% lower at 7,162.39 in afternoon trade on Friday, with InterContinental Hotels Group leading the index lower.

The multinational hotels group topped the fallers after the demonstrations in Hong Kong led its RevPar to crater by 36.0% in the third quarter, driving a 6.1% fall for the Greater China region instead of the 2.2% drop which analysts at Morgan Stanley had penciled in.

AJ Bell analyst Russ Mould said: "Hotels are operationally geared – they generally have a large amount of fixed costs so in good times profit can rise at a much faster rate than revenue. But in a downturn profits can fall much faster than sales.

"While we are certainly not at the stage where business travel has been scaled back on a large scale, the cracks are certainly showing. Consumer travel demand has also been patchy of late."

Rolls Royce was also headed downward after a poor third quarter performance from Renault sent car manufacturers across Europe lower.

Burberry dropped after analysts at RBC Capital Markets cut their price target for the stock from 1,975p to 1,925p.

Separately, IG's Chris Beauchamp said weaker than expected Chinese GDP data out overnight and US tariffs on European fashion were taking their toll.

"With the Chinese Q3 growth hitting a 30-year low, Burberry have found themselves caught between the prospect of lower Chinese demand on top of a detrimental 25% tariffs the US has imposed on EU clothing exports," said Beauchamp..

Steelmaker Evraz was also in the red as it said it is considering three major investments projects to increase sales of finished steel products.

As a result of the planned investments, which will be made between 2020 and 2023, the company is predicting capital expenditure of $1bn per annum for each of the years.

Imperial Brands was near the top of the leaderboard on the back of improved investor sentiment towards the sector following more negative news-flow around its vaping rivals, with US rival Altria having been upgraded by analysts during the session.

RBS was also in the plus column ahead of its third quarter trading update scheduled for 24 October.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,162.39 -0.28%

FTSE 100 - Risers

NMC Health (NMC) 2,688.00p 2.95%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,875.00p 2.01%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,928.00p 1.87%
Aviva (AV.) 415.40p 1.81%
Tesco (TSCO) 246.00p 1.40%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 338.80p 1.38%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,400.00p 1.35%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 960.40p 1.29%
ITV (ITV) 136.75p 1.26%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 4,513.00p 1.17%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 4,563.50p -3.66%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 710.60p -2.60%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,866.00p -2.56%
Relx plc (REL) 1,741.00p -2.46%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,328.00p -2.42%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,734.00p -2.39%
Evraz (EVR) 384.10p -2.31%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 4,932.00p -1.95%
Experian (EXPN) 2,371.00p -1.33%
Pearson (PSON) 674.00p -1.20%