London open: Miners pace the decline as investors eye ECB
London stocks fell in early trade on Thursday, with miners pacing the decline, as investors eyed the latest interest rate decision from the European Central Bank.
At 0855 BST, the FTSE 100 was down 0.6% at 5,976.73.
Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: "It appears that the markets are using the pre-ECB meeting calm as a chance to, if not pause, then somewhat catch their breath.
"By the looks of things, investors aren’t expecting too much support from Christine Lagarde and her peers.
"Still, the size of those moves suggests that the markets are happy to hold off on anything big until they see whether the ECB has got a change in direction planned."
The ECB rate decision is due at 1245 BST.
On home shores, investors were mulling over the latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which showed house prices rose at the fastest pace for four years in August as buyers sought out properties with gardens or near green space.
A net balance of 44% of estate agents reported rising prices in RICS' monthly survey, up from 13% in July and a turnaround from May when prices were falling. Only London failed to show growth with prices more or less unchanged in the past two months.
Buyer interest, new instructions and agreed sales all rose sharply as households acted to take account of Chancellor Rishi Sunak's stamp duty holiday, RICS. Sunak scrapped stamp duty on the first £500,000 of a house purchase until the end of March to support the property market during the Covid-19 crisis.
Amid the flurry of activity, near-term sales expectations are positive but the outlook over the next 12 months weakened as agents grew more concerned about the wider economic climate. After returning to growth over the summer many economists expect rising unemployment and Brexit to hit the economy later in 2020.
In equity markets, miners were under the cosh as copper prices fell, with BHP, Antofagasta and Anglo American all weaker.
Supermarket chain Morrisons was in the red after it said first-half like-for-like sales rose 8.7% but revenue declined 1.1% and pre-tax profit was down 28.2%.
Homewares retailer Dunelm was lower after it reported a drop in full-year profit and revenue as it took a hit from the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent closure of its stores.
Elsewhere, oilfield services provider Petrofac was knocked lower by a downgrade to ‘underperform’ at Bernstein.
On the upside, housebuilders were boosted by the RICS survey, with Taylor Wimpey, Barratt, Persimmon and Berkeley all higher.
British Airways and Iberia parent IAG was also up despite announcing a heavily-discounted rights issue to raise €2.74bn to help bolster its finances.
Miniature wargames manufacturer Games Workshop surged after it declared a 50p a share dividend and said trading in the three months to 30 August was ahead of the board’s expectations thanks to a solid performance from the online segment.
Dixons Carphone also racked up strong gains after saying it was considering a minority listing of its Nordics business and reporting strong trading supported by online sales.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 5,976.73 -0.60%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,710.05 0.65%
techMARK (TASX) 3,827.86 -0.47%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 114.45p 1.42%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 849.80p 1.24%
ITV (ITV) 63.28p 1.09%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 506.00p 1.08%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,497.00p 1.05%
WPP (WPP) 638.00p 1.05%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 557.20p 0.91%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 202.20p 0.90%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,263.50p 0.88%
NATWEST GROUP PLC ORD 100P (NWG) 104.75p 0.87%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 186.20p -4.51%
Avast (AVST) 538.00p -2.18%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 187.70p -2.14%
BHP Group (BHP) 1,689.20p -1.77%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,078.00p -1.73%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 285.40p -1.59%
BP (BP.) 258.10p -1.58%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,843.80p -1.58%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 322.65p -1.54%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,460.00p -1.45%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Games Workshop Group (GAW) 10,330.00p 18.40%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 89.80p 9.65%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 62.80p 6.17%
Hammerson (HMSO) 27.10p 5.76%
Rank Group (RNK) 131.60p 5.62%
Ibstock (IBST) 155.00p 5.30%
Contour Global (GLO) 210.00p 3.70%
Virgin Money UK (VMUK) 94.20p 3.27%
Chemring Group (CHG) 246.00p 3.14%
Computacenter (CCC) 2,334.00p 2.82%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Cineworld Group (CINE) 50.70p -3.94%
Energean (ENOG) 529.10p -3.80%
Meggitt (MGGT) 271.80p -3.10%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 139.65p -2.44%
Equiniti Group (EQN) 107.80p -2.36%
Spectris (SXS) 2,661.00p -1.95%
BBGI SICAV S.A. (DI) (BBGI) 168.00p -1.75%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 569.00p -1.56%
Derwent London (DLN) 2,678.00p -1.47%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 175.60p -1.40%