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London open: Stocks edge lower ahead of data; Greene King tumbles
London stocks edged lower in early trade on Friday ahead of a deluge of data releases, with pub group Greene King under the cosh as it warned over its outlook and reported a drop in sales.
At 0830 BST, the FTSE 100 was down 0.2% to 7,383.11, while the pound was flat against the euro at 1.0902 and up 0.2% versus the greenback at 1.3129.
On the data front, industrial and manufacturing production, construction output and the trade balance are due at 0930 BST.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: “For several months now the manufacturing and industrial production data from the Office for National Statistics has painted a completely different picture of the UK economy than the business surveys and PMI data which has been predominantly positive.
“In the June data last month there was some evidence that this anomaly was starting to correct itself, however the ONS data does tend to raise more questions than answers and today’s July data isn’t expected to be any different.”
Industrial production is expected to rise 0.2%, down from 0.5%, while manufacturing production is expected to improve to 0.3% from 0%, and construction output is expected to decline 0.3%, worsening from June’s fall of 0.1%.
The trade balance deficit for July is expected to narrow to £3.25bn from £4.5bn in June.
In corporate news, pub companies were all dragged down as brewer and pub operator Greene King slumped after it said pub revenues fell in the in the first 18 weeks of the year and it is feeling cautious about the coming months amid weaker consumer confidence, increased costs and increasing competition. Peers Mitchells & Butler, JD Wetherspoon, Fullers and most of all Marston’s were all pulled down with it.
Experian was trading lower as US credit report giant Equifax said the data of around 143m of its customers may have been compromised in a cyber security breach.
British Land nudged down after announcing its debut sterling bond issue for £300m at a coupon of 2.375% for 12 years.
On the upside, Dairy Crest edged higher after it said it will trim its cash pension contributions by around £12m over the next two years and its future pensions bill will reduced as it moves retirees’ benefit increase to the consumer price index rather than the retail price index.
Luxury fashion brand Burberry was boosted by an upgrade to ‘outperform’ at Credit Suisse.
