Late market roundup: Stocks end week red; travel firms recover mildly
Stock prices in London closed lower on Friday, with airline companies edging up a notch as oil prices were more steady; miners however ended mostly lower, with Cloudbreak Discovery a notable exception.
The FTSE 100 index was down 145.17 points, 1.4%, at 9,918.33. The FTSE 250 was down 218.07 points, 1.0%, at 21,341.97, and the AIM all-share was down 9.68 points, 1.3%, at 718.17.
The FTSE 100 has lost 342.77 points, 3.3%, over the week.
The Cboe UK 100 was down 1.3% at 986.01, the Cboe UK 250 was down 1.3% at 18,508.18, and the Cboe small companies was down 1.5% at 16,972.13.
On the FTSE 100, BP lost 3.6% while fellow oil major Shell lost 0.8%.
On AIM, oil and gas engineering services business Plexus was down 8.1%, despite receiving £1.5 million of orders under a previously announced framework agreement for rental wellhead services with a UK continental shelf operator.
Small-cap company Nostrum Oil & Gas lost 2.0%. The firm operates gas processing facilities and an export hub in north-west Kazakhstan.
Brent oil was quoted at $109.78 a barrel at the time of the London equities close on Friday, down from $110.46 late on Thursday.
It previously spiked at $111.00 on Friday morning, after Axios reported that US President Donald Trump was mulling plans to get ships passing through the key Strait of Hormuz again by occupying Iran’s Kharg Island.
However, oil prices retreated in light of Israeli assurances that it would refrain from targeting any more of Iran’s energy infrastructure. Israel had struck Iran’s South Pars gas field on Wednesday, prompting Tehran to attack energy infrastructure of its neighbouring countries.
Still, Infinox’s Thadeu Dos Santos cautioned that ‘the market remains highly sensitive to developments in the Middle East and the risk of further supply disruptions...the underlying risk backdrop remains tense.
‘Shipping and transit around key regional routes continue to face heightened uncertainty, and the market remains focused on the potential for sustained disruptions to physical flows. With geopolitics still driving risk premia, oil prices are likely to stay volatile and headline-sensitive.’
Airline stocks performed well. FTSE 100’s easyJet and British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines both gained 1.0%. On the FTSE 250, Wizz Air gained 1.6%.
JD Wetherspoon was the worst mid-cap performer, down 11%, after it issued a profit warning based on rising costs despite reporting sector-leading sales growth.
Gold was quoted lower, at $4,593.70 an ounce against $4,603.53 on Thursday.
On the FTSE 100, Antofagasta lost 4.0% while Endeavour Mining lost 3.5%. Rio Tinto closed 1.5% lower.
Small-cap gold and metals project developer Cloudbreak Discovery, however, gained 17%.
Cloudbreak said planning is underway for an initial 3,000 to 5,000 metre drilling programme at the Darlot West gold project, and that it believes there is ‘very significant potential’ for the project to host ‘significant’ gold mineralisation.
Meanwhile in the UK, the Office for National Statistics had earlier reported that net borrowing amounted to £14.33 billion in February, the second-highest recorded figure for last month and only beaten during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
And in further unwelcome news, Analysts Cornwall Insight said household energy bills could jump by £332 or 20% annually in July as recent sharp increases in wholesale prices are set to feed through into Ofgem’s price cap.
It said forecasts for the watchdog’s price cap from July to September had surged to £1,973 a year for a typical dual fuel households.
This marks a significant step up on its forecast from just over two weeks ago, when it had predicted a 10% increase from July.
In European equities on Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris closed down 1.8%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt ended 1.9% lower.
The pound was quoted lower at $1.3323 at the time of the London equities close on Friday, compared to $1.3367 on Thursday. Against the euro, sterling fell to €1.1526 from €1.1597 a day prior. The euro stood at $1.1561, higher against $1.1527. Against the yen, the dollar was trading higher at JP¥159.20 compared to JP¥158.09.
Stocks in New York were lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4%, the S&P 500 index down 0.7%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 1.1%.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.37%, widening from 4.27%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted at 4.94%, widening from 4.84%.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Metlen Energy & Metals, up 1.10p at 35.40p, Croda International, up 36.00p at 2,554.00p, Entain, up 6.40p at 544.00p, easyJet, up 3.60p at 353.60p, and Burberry, up 10.00p at 1,014.50p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Smiths Group, down 232.00p at 2,118.00p, Babcock International, down 60.00p at 1,275.00p, Antofagasta, down 130.00p at 3,143.00p, Coca-Cola Europacific, down 280.00p at 6,910.00p, and BP, down 20.90p at 562.30p.
On Monday’s economic calendar, the eurozone has consumer confidence and the US has the Chicago Fed national activity index.
On Monday’s UK corporate calendar, Applied Nutrition reports half-year results and several companies release annual reports, including Partners Group Private Equity, Thungela Resources, and Distribution Finance.
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