Sector movers: Packaging dented, REITs mostly alright
Automobiles and packaging companies put the brakes on gains on Thursday, while real estate investment trusts were one of the few sectors standing tall.
Autos were down entirely due to the cool reception for results from Aston Martin, which reported good underlying growth in its the first results since its autumn flotation, but fell to a statutory loss due to listing costs.
Average selling prices of core models fell to £141,000 from £150,000 due to the introduction of the Vantage and more V8 variants which dragged gross margin down to 39.7% from 43.4%.
Broker Numis noted that the results are in line with expectations at the time of the IPO, with the new Welsh factory largely complete and the new DBX SUV vehicle on track for launch in next year.
"We have reworked numbers primarily to reflect further operating costs for St Athan coming through rather than capitalized, reduced our over-ambitious volume targets and taking into account IFRS16 impact of -£4m to PBT," Numis analysts said, forecasting 2019 EBITDA of £306m and PBT £110m down from £326m and £147m respectively.
Paper and packaging group Mondi reported stronger profits than were forecast, but this was on lower revenue than expected for 2018. Moreover, hitting its shares and those of its rivals, the South African group said pricing is "mixed" going into 2019.
Smufit Kappa and DS Smith were both knocked into the red.
REIT were in the green, led by storage chains Safestore and Big Yellow, service office group Workspace, student accommodation provider Unite and shopping mall owner Intu.
Earlier in the week Morgan Stanley analysts pointed out that the sector's underperformance relative to the benchmark over the past 12 months has been about 0.8 standard deviations away from the mean.
Top performing sectors so far today
Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,931.52 +0.96%
Leisure Goods 7,744.41 +0.81%
Industrial Metals & Mining 5,412.27 +0.80%
Construction & Materials 5,617.80 +0.72%
Mobile Telecommunications 2,998.20 +0.72%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Automobiles & Parts 6,619.22 -11.59%
Forestry & Paper 19,869.48 -4.34%
General Industrials 5,503.06 -1.87%
Aerospace and Defence 4,746.49 -1.82%
Mining 19,055.03 -1.81%
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,069.85 -0.53%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,110.03 -0.23%
techMARK (TASX) 3,443.02 -0.67%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 352.30p 7.08%
St James's Place (STJ) 970.60p 3.12%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 270.10p 1.77%
NMC Health (NMC) 2,664.00p 1.76%
ITV (ITV) 129.20p 1.53%
SEGRO (SGRO) 661.20p 1.47%
CRH (CRH) 2,392.00p 1.40%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,722.00p 1.29%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 179.15p 1.21%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 494.10p 1.21%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
easyJet (EZJ) 1,219.50p -7.01%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,765.00p -4.34%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 505.00p -4.10%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,118.00p -3.73%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 337.40p -3.02%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 954.20p -2.91%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 6,120.00p -2.59%
BHP Group (BHP) 1,756.80p -2.53%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 525.40p -2.49%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 942.20p -2.30%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Merlin Entertainments (MERL) 364.30p 3.32%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 2,448.00p 2.86%
Metro Bank (MTRO) 982.00p 2.83%
Safestore Holdings (SAFE) 614.50p 2.76%
Just Eat (JE.) 743.20p 2.57%
Hastings Group Holdings (HSTG) 224.61p 2.56%
Vesuvius (VSVS) 606.50p 1.93%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 330.00p 1.79%
Workspace Group (WKP) 974.00p 1.72%
CYBG (CYBG) 195.80p 1.50%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 1,136.95p -17.28%
Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 145.00p -10.27%
Howden Joinery Group (HWDN) 497.80p -5.50%
Inchcape (INCH) 563.00p -5.14%
Amigo Holdings (AMGO) 225.42p -4.89%
Elementis (ELM) 181.40p -3.20%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 3,010.00p -2.84%
Superdry (SDRY) 516.00p -2.82%
Coats Group (COA) 88.40p -2.32%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 98.20p -2.29%