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London open: Stocks in the red following weak US, Asian sessions
London stocks fell in early trade, taking their cue from downbeat sessions in the US and Asia.
At 0825 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 0.6% to 7,335.47. In the US on Tuesday, the Dow and the Nasdaq suffered their worst day since September last year, with financials – which have benefitted from hopes that President Trump will scale back bank regulation – taking the biggest hit.
Rebecca O’Keeffe, head of investment at stockbroker Interactive Investor, said: “European markets are down for a second day, as investors start to question current equity valuations. Financials and commodities have been the winners since the US election and these are the sectors under most pressure now as concerns rise that the Trump trade has gone too far, too fast, without seeing the relevant policy changes to support market expectations.”
“It is a measure of how calm markets have been that the 1%+ fall seen in the US yesterday was the biggest sell-off since Trump was elected. High expectations and low volatility has seen money pouring into markets, providing the foundations for valuations. However, the key questions are: how sticky this money is, whether the market has become overly complacent, what happens if investor confidence falls, or is this simply a buying opportunity?”
In corporate news, Kingfisher declined after its annual results beat the City’s profit forecasts thanks to strong growth from its Screwfix chain, but the company sounded a cautious note on its outlook.
International real estate advisor Savills was also in the red after it announced record results, with group revenue up 13% to £1.45bn, but said it was cautious on Brexit.
Acacia Mining was on the back foot after it said it has ended merger talks with Canada’s Endeavour.
Ferrexpo was weaker despite saying it will start paying dividends again and posting a 20% jump in its 2016 earnings.
Schroders was it by a downgrade from RBC Capital Markets, while Wood Group retreated after Jefferies downgraded it to ‘underperform’.
Commercial laundry group Berendsen was in the red after a double downgrade by Credit Suisse, while Clarkson shares dropped after a number of former shareholders of RS Platou agreed to sell an aggregate of 1.23m shares in the company at 2,750p each.
Housebuilder Redrow advanced as it said its trading performance continues to be robust and it expects pre-tax profit for the year to the end of June 2017 to rise 22% from the prior year to at least £306m.
IT infrastructure provider Softcat gained ground as it reported that interim pre-tax profits rose to £20.9m from £15.4m on the back of a 28.9% jump in revenues to £378.5m thanks to double-digit growth in software, hardware and services.
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