Search Share Prices

London open: Stocks nudge lower as Barclays, Shell decline; ECB in focus

(WebFG News) - London stocks nudged lower in early trade on Thursday following uninspiring earnings from Shell and Barclays, as investors eyed the latest policy announcement from the European Central Bank.
At 0840 BST, the FTSE 100 was down 0.1% to 7,373.89, while the pound was off 0.1% against the euro and the dollar at 1.1445 and 1.3925, respectively.

On the data front, BBA mortgage approvals for March are scheduled for 0930 BST, while the CBI distributive trades survey for April is at 1100 BST.

The ECB rate decision is at 1245 BST, while the press conference is at 1330 BST, with no change to policy expected.

Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: "Back in March the ECB caused a bit of hawkish hope to emerge for the euro when a slight change in wording around the terms of its Asset Purchase Programme caused investors to speculate the central bank was dropping its easing bias. However, Draghi was quick to pour cold water on those looking to read too much into the linguistic shift, with the month's meeting minutes further scraping away whatever hawkish remnants were left for the currency to cling onto.

"With the euro now looking incredibly ropey against the dollar, it'll be interesting to see if Draghi is willing to give it another kicking, or if his press conference will be a classically fireworks-free affair."

In corporate news, Barclays fell as it reported revenue down 8% to £5.36bn and a loss due to litigation and conduct items, but said it intended to return more capital to shareholders. Underlying profit crept up 1% in the first quarter, if excluding litigation and conduct items, to £1.73bn.

Royal Dutch Shell leaked lower as it reported a strong rise in first-quarter income thanks to higher oil and gas prices, and growth from its gas and upstream businesses but said less favourable refining market conditions and lower contributions from trading impacted the earnings of the downstream business.

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey was in the red after saying demand for new housing has continued to be good through early 2018 and that it remains on track to meet its expectations for the year, but reporting a drop in the sales rate and order book.

FTSE 250 insurer Hastings Group slumped even as it posted a jump in written premiums as its live customer policies and market share grew, with analysts pointing out that the first-quarter performance shows a slowdown in the growth trajectory for the year.

On the upside, oil giant BP pushed up as it appointed former BG Group and Statoil boss Helge Lund as its new chairman, succeeding Carl-Henric Svanberg, with effect from 1 January 2019.

Cobham rose after saying that trading in the first quarter was line with its expectations as it reaffirmed the 2018 guidance it set out back in March, while Meggitt advanced as it posted a 6% jump in first-quarter revenue.

Asset manager Schroders was in the black despite saying that assets under management and administration slipped in the first quarter.

Elementis gained after it hailed a "good" start to the year, while Domino's Pizza was trading higher after saying UK like-for-like sale grew 7% in the first quarter.

There wasn't a whole lot going on on the broker front, although Whitbread was downgraded at Stifel and upgraded by Kepler Cheuvreux after announcing on Wednesday that it plans to spin off its Costa coffee chain.

Antofagasta, Legal & General, Fresnillo, Glencore, Relx, Rolls-Royce, William Hill, Man Group, Weir, Petrofac, IWG, National Express, Spirax-Sarco Engineering and International Public Partnerships were among the companies whose stock went ex-dividend.



Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,373.89 -0.07%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,068.07 0.24%
techMARK (TASX) 3,396.36 0.34%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Old Mutual (OML) 252.40p 1.69%
BP (BP.) 530.72p 1.28%
GKN (GKN) 448.80p 1.20%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 4,813.00p 1.11%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 2,032.00p 1.09%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 722.60p 1.09%
Diageo (DGE) 2,491.50p 0.99%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,378.50p 0.99%
Centrica (CNA) 148.63p 0.97%
Experian (EXPN) 1,637.00p 0.96%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Legal & General Group (LGEN) 268.20p -3.66%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 187.00p -3.03%
Kingfisher (KGF) 294.70p -2.09%
Barclays (BARC) 208.75p -2.00%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,538.40p -1.92%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,481.50p -1.86%
Relx plc (REL) 1,528.00p -1.32%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,264.00p -1.02%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 951.20p -0.92%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 706.90p -0.69%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Drax Group (DRX) 320.00p 8.70%
Elementis (ELM) 296.60p 5.03%
Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 360.85p 4.32%
Purecircle Limited (DI) (PURE) 395.50p 2.73%
Hunting (HTG) 799.10p 2.19%
Rank Group (RNK) 173.40p 2.00%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 374.10p 1.93%
Cobham (COB) 117.50p 1.82%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 557.00p 1.79%
Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 229.00p 1.78%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Hastings Group Holdings (HSTG) 260.60p -6.66%
William Hill (WMH) 287.90p -2.77%
International Public Partnerships Ltd. (INPP) 143.67p -2.40%
Aggreko (AGK) 716.20p -1.97%
National Express Group (NEX) 396.20p -1.93%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 587.80p -1.87%
VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Ltd. (VOF) 331.00p -1.78%
NewRiver REIT (NRR) 290.00p -1.36%
Renewi (RWI) 74.00p -1.33%
Man Group (EMG) 178.85p -1.05%

Related Share Prices