London midday: Stocks in the red as housebuilders slump
London stocks had fallen further into the red by midday on Monday, with housebuilders under the cosh following the latest Rightmove house price data, despite some optimism about the loosening of coronavirus restrictions in certain European countries.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.8% at 5,743.29.
Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell pointed to uncertainties about the week’s impending data, falling oil prices and "Donald Trump’s dangerous handling of the Covid-19 pandemic".
"It is likely going to be a week of rough data, arguably starting with the ZEW economic sentiment readings and the UK’s first coronavirus-relevant jobless claims number on Tuesday, eurozone consumer confidence on Wednesday, and, most importantly, a wave of flash manufacturing and services PMIs on Thursday, alongside the usual shock of the US unemployment claims figures," he said.
Also likely to be weighing on sentiment were reports that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reluctant to lift lockdown measures too soon for fear of a second wave.
Oil prices were in focus as futures plunged to a low not seen since the last century as concerns mounted that storage facilities could be overwhelmed due to plunging demand from the Covid-19 crisis. West Texas Intermediate dropped by as much as 21% to $14.47 a barrel on Monday - the lowest since 1999.
The heavy fall suggested producers may need to reduce output still further. Opec and other large producers agreed on 12 April to cuts that would reduce global supply by about 10% but some analysts expect demand to fall by far more than that.
In equity markets, housebuilders Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments and Persimmon were all under pressure as Rightmove said in its latest survey that the coronavirus lockdown meant statistics on the number of properties coming to market, new seller asking prices, and new sales agreed were "not meaningful".
Rightmove said the average asking price of the "daily dwindling number of properties coming to market" in the period from 8 March to 11 April slipped 0.2% to £311,950, with the annual rate of increase from last April being 2.1%.
Rightmove said new sales were now "almost impossible". "You do not have a functioning market when buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell, and so the focus needs to be on what is required to help the market recover once the lockdown can safely be eased," it said.
Elsewhere, Centrica lost ground after a downgrade to ‘reduce’ at HSBC, while shares of online trading platform Plus500 slid after it said Asaf Elimelech has decided to step down from his role as chief executive officer.
On the upside, Rank Group was higher even after the casino operator said it would not pay its next dividend and that about 7,000 of its UK workers have been furloughed under the government's Covid-19 job retention programme.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 5,743.29 -0.75%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 15,734.28 -0.79%
techMARK (TASX) 3,488.75 -0.55%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Unilever (ULVR) 4,209.00p 2.28%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 444.30p 2.04%
Next (NXT) 4,525.00p 2.03%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,561.50p 1.89%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,799.50p 1.84%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 6,348.00p 1.60%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,345.00p 1.43%
Experian (EXPN) 2,400.00p 0.93%
Pennon Group (PNN) 1,097.00p 0.92%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 7,550.00p 0.91%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Meggitt (MGGT) 254.50p -7.69%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 459.30p -5.44%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,351.00p -5.02%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 482.00p -4.40%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 130.50p -4.29%
ITV (ITV) 68.20p -4.24%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,918.00p -4.00%
Glencore (GLEN) 136.52p -3.37%
Fresnillo (FRES) 684.60p -3.28%
Evraz (EVR) 252.80p -2.96%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Rank Group (RNK) 179.00p 7.19%
Provident Financial (PFG) 171.00p 6.87%
Contour Global (GLO) 153.00p 5.37%
PayPoint (PAY) 575.00p 3.79%
Capita (CPI) 37.39p 3.72%
BlackRock Smaller Companies Trust (BRSC) 1,276.00p 3.57%
Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 328.20p 3.08%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 703.40p 2.96%
4Imprint Group (FOUR) 1,892.00p 2.94%
Drax Group (DRX) 196.40p 2.61%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 171.80p -8.32%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 178.35p -6.48%
Bellway (BWY) 2,287.00p -6.19%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 208.60p -5.70%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 38.90p -5.58%
Redrow (RDW) 387.80p -5.09%
Energean Oil & Gas (ENOG) 690.00p -4.83%
Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 1,432.00p -4.79%
National Express Group (NEX) 237.20p -4.59%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 59.76p -4.57%