Early market roundup: Stocks down as gas price surges; airlines lower

Stock prices in London opened much lower on Tuesday, amid a sharp surge in gas prices while stocks of airline companies continued to trade lower as travel via the Middle East continued to be significantly disrupted.

UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to say the economy is ‘stronger and more secure’ as a result of decisions taken by the government as she addresses the Commons on Tuesday.

Reeves will point to falling inflation and interest rate cuts as successes which have resulted in an easing of living pressures. However, the statement comes just weeks after the Bank of England downgraded its 2026 and 2027 growth forecasts for the UK economy.

UK natural gas futures rose 26% to their highest price since January 2023, over 143 pence per therm, following Qatar’s halt of LNG output at its Ras Laffan complex after an Iranian drone strike.

The gas price stood at 144.19 pence per therm on Tuesday morning, or 84% higher than 78.39p on Friday before the start of the war between the US, Israel and Iran.

The UK has limited LNG storage capacity and is highly reliant on imports, in particular on gas from Qatar, making it particularly vulnerable to supply disruption.

The FTSE 100 index was down 153.41 points, 1.4%, at 10,626.70. The FTSE 250 was down 337.65 points, 1.4%, at 23,085.99, and the AIM all-share was down 6.55 points, 0.8%, at 809.34.

The Cboe UK 100 was down 1.4% at 1,057.35, the Cboe UK 250 was down 1.3% at 20,366.51, and the Cboe small companies was down 0.3% at 18,434.75.

Smith & Nephew led the FTSE 100, up 2.6%, after it reported increased profit and revenue, and forecast accelerating revenue growth, in its 2025 results on Monday.

Among grocery retailers, Tesco lost 0.2%, J Sainsbury was down 0.3%, and Marks & Spencer dropped 2.0%. On the FTSE 250, Ocado was down 0.5%.

UK take-home grocery sales rose in February as shoppers continued to spend more at the tills and increasingly turned to online ordering, industry survey data showed.

Worldpanel by Numerator said take-home sales at the grocers increased 3.4% in the four weeks to February 22 compared with the same period a year earlier. Like-for-like grocery price inflation edged up to 4.3%, having fallen in each of the previous four months.

Online grocery was a standout performer, with internet sales up 9.7% year on year. More than 18 million online orders were placed over the four weeks, lifting the channel’s market share to 13%, its highest level since July 2021.

CyanConnode jumped 13%, after it received a revised takeover bid from Esyasoft which values it at £37.5 million.

The narrowband radio frequency mesh network developer said it would be willing to recommend the new 10.44 pence per share proposal unanimously to its shareholders.

In European equities on Tuesday, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 2.0%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt lost 2.3%.

The pound was quoted at $1.3309 early on Tuesday in London, lower compared to $1.3360 at the equities close on Monday. The euro stood lower at $1.1624, against $1.1672. Against the yen, the dollar was trading lower at JP¥157.52 compared to JP¥157.73.

In Asia on Tuesday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was down 3.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 1.4%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 1.1%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 1.3%.

In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.2%, the S&P 500 up marginally and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.4%.

The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.09%, widening from 4.05%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted at 4.73%, widening from 4.70%.

Brent oil was quoted at $80.97 a barrel early in London on Tuesday, rising from $77.92 late Monday.

Oil major BP remained high on the FTSE 100, up 0.8%, but Shell lost 0.4%.

The Middle East conflict continued to affect travel stocks, however, with International Consolidated Airlines down 3.4% and easyJet down 2.8%.

On the FTSE 250, Wizz Air lost 4.7%. The airline on Tuesday reported 6.7% on-year growth in passenger figures for February, to 4.9 million from 4.6 million. The load factor however reduced to 90.5% from 91.8%, as its seat capacity increased by 8.3% to 5.4 million from 5.0 million.

Gold was quoted higher at $5,308.66 an ounce against $5,288.00 on Monday.

Gold miner Fresnillo was down 3.1% after its 2025 results.

Pretax profit more than doubled to $2.08 billion in 2025, in line with market expectations, while total revenue rose 31% to $4.56 billion from $3.49 billion, beating market expectations of $4.36 billion. The price of gold has risen 82% in the past 12 months while the silver price has nearly trebled, Fresnillo noted.

But gold production decreased 5.0% to 600,287 ounces in 2025, and silver production fell by 14% to 48.7 million ounces.

Still to come on Tuesday’s economic calendar, the eurozone has flash CPI data and the US has its Redbook index.

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