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London open: FTSE ticks lower as investors pause for breath
London stocks ticked just a touch lower at the open on Friday as investors paused for breath following a record closing high in the previous session.
At 0840 BST, the FTSE 100 was down 0.1% to 7,780.87 after closing up 0.7% at 7,787.97 on Thursday, which was a record close and just below the intraday high of 7,792.56 seen in January, as energy shares benefited from a jump in oil prices.
Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: "Whether or not the FTSE can mount a charge on 7,800 may be down to two things this Friday: Brent crude and sterling. The former is sitting at $79.50 per barrel following the latest renewal of the US-China trade war fears; a return to $80 could give the FTSE the fuel to beat its own intraday record.
"As for the pound, if the currency sees even a semi-substantial slide against either the dollar, where it is just above $1.35, and the euro, where it is down 0.1%, then that may be enough to push the UK index over the edge."
Stocks in the US finished slightly lower on Thursday after President Trump said trade negotiations with China are unlikely to succeed.
"Trump feels that China and the EU have become soiled when it comes to trading with the US, and they have gotten their way for so long they won't be willing to change. This could be a ploy by the US President to lower expectations at home, and he may not get as good as a deal that he wants. The reaction from traders wasn't enormous and this suggests that dealers aren't too concerned yet," said CMC Markets analyst David Madden.
In corporate news, AstraZeneca was under the cosh as the pharmaceutical giant's first-quarter revenues and earnings came in lower than expected due to investment in new drug launches and erosion of sales for its Crestor statin drug.
Hikma Pharmaceuticals slipped despite hailing an "encouraging start" to the year and reiterating its full-year guidance.
Rio Tinto fell after saying it had been given the green light to run driverless trains at its iron ore business in Western Australia, while homeware retailer Dunelm was in the red as it appointed Laura Carr - currently group financial controller of Compass Group - as its new chief financial officer.
John Laing Infrastructure was a smidgen lower even as it posted 1.8% growth in its underlying portfolio value for the three months to the end of March.
Lloyds Banking ticked up after announcing the sale of its Irish residential mortgage portfolio to Barclays for £4bn.
In small caps, Carpetright rallied after announcing plans for a £60m placing and open offer to fund additional costs associated with implementing its CVA, repay its £12.5m interim loan and fund the group's capex plans.
In broker note action, Smith & Nephew was hit by a downgrade to 'hold' at Commerzbank, but outsourcer Capita was higher after an upgrade to 'overweight' at JPMorgan.
DS Smith was lifted to 'outperform' at Davy, while Ocado was upgraded to 'hold' at HSBC a day after signing a deal with US grocery chain Kroger.
888 was cut to 'neutral' by JPMorgan and Grainger was downgraded to 'equal-weight' at Barclays, while BTG was knocked down to 'hold' at Investec.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,780.87 -0.09%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,027.87 0.04%
techMARK (TASX) 3,501.38 -0.51%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 3,036.00p 2.36%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 556.00p 2.32%
NMC Health (NMC) 3,738.00p 1.74%
Mondi (MNDI) 2,087.00p 1.07%
Relx plc (REL) 1,612.50p 0.97%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,944.50p 0.86%
Centrica (CNA) 144.92p 0.71%
Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 369.50p 0.60%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,836.50p 0.56%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,588.00p 0.54%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,414.00p -3.64%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 5,201.40p -2.69%
Royal Mail (RMG) 540.60p -2.59%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 193.52p -1.29%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,315.50p -0.90%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,014.00p -0.69%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,936.00p -0.46%
Carnival (CCL) 4,924.00p -0.44%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 752.20p -0.42%
ITV (ITV) 168.65p -0.41%
FTSE 250 - Risers
SSP Group (SSPG) 639.70p 1.99%
Computacenter (CCC) 1,322.60p 1.90%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 839.20p 1.89%
Capita (CPI) 134.20p 1.82%
On The Beach Group (OTB) 511.00p 1.79%
Games Workshop Group (GAW) 2,645.00p 1.73%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,058.00p 1.34%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 241.40p 1.30%
Diploma (DPLM) 1,241.00p 1.22%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 624.20p 1.20%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
BTG (BTG) 613.00p -2.62%
Just Group (JUST) 146.90p -2.33%
888 Holdings (888) 311.00p -2.20%
Grainger (GRI) 315.80p -1.93%
Marston's (MARS) 99.48p -1.90%
Cobham (COB) 121.45p -1.70%
CYBG (CYBG) 297.20p -1.59%
TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 248.00p -1.59%
IMI (IMI) 1,147.00p -1.55%
Rank Group (RNK) 167.40p -1.41%