London midday: Stocks maintain losses amid inflation woes
London stocks were still in the red by midday on Tuesday amid worries about inflation and Chinese property group Evergrande, as investors digested the latest UK jobs data.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.5% at 7,112.80.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "A sea of red flashing prices across Asian and European markets followed an equally depressing showing on Wall Street last night.
"The energy crisis is showing no signs of abating, which means considerable cost pressures on companies, and consumers facing the prospect of having less money in their pocket to spend on products and services, thereby having a negative effect on the economy.
"China’s regulatory interference is back to haunt markets once again, with Beijing casting its eye on the financial sector to stamp out corruption. The Evergrande saga also continues to rumble on, with reports that some bondholders didn’t receive interest payments from the heavily indebted property group due on Monday."
On home shores, figures released earlier by the Office for National Statistics showed that job vacancies hit a 20-year high between July and September. They rose by 318,000 from pre-pandemic January to March 2020 levels to 1.1 million, with accommodation and food services seeing a near-50,000 jump.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 4.5% in the three months to August from 4.6% in the three months to July.
Data also showed that the number of payroll employees rose in September by 207,000 to a record 29.2m, and is now higher than it was before the pandemic.
Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: "The jobs market has continued to recover from the effects of the coronavirus, with the number of employees on payroll in September now well exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
"The latest earnings continue to show growth on the year, even after taking inflation into account.
"However, the figures are still being affected by special factors that make it hard to read underlying trends."
In equity markets, low-cost airline easyJet flew lower after saying it expected to post annual losses of more than £1bn due to the Covid pandemic, but added that it turned cash positive in the final quarter of the financial year driven as demand improved.
Gambling firm Entain ticked down even after it said third-quarter revenue rose, with in-shop volumes improving as Covid lockdown measures were lifted.
Diversified Energy tumbled on the back of a Bloomberg Green article which reported gas leaks at ageing production installations.
On the upside, GlaxoSmithKline was the top performer on the FTSE 100 after Bloomberg reported that its consumer unit was drawing interest from private equity firms in what could lead to the biggest buyout of all time.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,112.80 -0.48%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,453.17 -0.15%
techMARK (TASX) 4,546.70 0.07%
FTSE 100 - Risers
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,427.80p 2.51%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,422.00p 1.85%
Croda International (CRDA) 8,408.00p 1.72%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 7,742.00p 1.55%
SSE (SSE) 1,578.50p 1.54%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,434.00p 1.54%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,289.00p 1.50%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 572.80p 1.38%
Fresnillo (FRES) 820.80p 1.16%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 5,498.00p 0.84%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 177.12p -2.68%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,965.50p -2.66%
Prudential (PRU) 1,454.50p -2.25%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 142.68p -1.92%
Evraz (EVR) 578.80p -1.87%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,194.00p -1.78%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,781.00p -1.77%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,606.00p -1.59%
Abrdn (ABDN) 248.90p -1.54%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,482.00p -1.53%
FTSE 250 - Risers
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 268.20p 8.49%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 22.86p 6.13%
Trustpilot Group (TRST) 352.40p 3.53%
Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 224.00p 2.75%
Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 1,090.00p 2.44%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 281.80p 2.40%
Britvic (BVIC) 879.50p 2.39%
Liontrust Asset Management (LIO) 2,030.00p 2.01%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 2,310.00p 1.99%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 176.10p 1.94%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 105.80p -16.43%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 64.96p -3.93%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 315.00p -3.55%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,840.00p -3.16%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 228.70p -2.85%
AO World (AO.) 146.40p -2.72%
easyJet (EZJ) 631.60p -2.53%
Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 207.00p -2.36%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 189.80p -2.32%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 4,664.00p -2.24%