The FTSE 100 gave back early gains to close lower on Wednesday as weak retailers and increased geopolitical concerns limited progress.
The index closed down 17.14 points, 0.2%, at 9,225.39. The FTSE 250 ended 62.61 points lower, 0.3%, at 21,534.10 and the AIM All-Share finished down 6.29 points, 0.8%, at 762.01.
In Europe, the Cac 40 in Paris ended up 0.2%, while the Dax 40 in Frankfurt closed 0.4% lower.
Investors were unsettled by events in the Middle East following Israel’s missile strike on Qatar. Also, Nato fighter jets shot down Russian drones over Polish airspace for the first time.
Poland’s foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Wednesday that the overnight intrusion of several Russian drones into the Nato member’s airspace was “not an accidental event”.
“We are dealing with an unprecedented case of an attack not only on Poland’s territory but also on the territory of Nato and the EU,” Mr Sikorski told reporters.
In London, airlines came under pressure over fears that flights will be disrupted. British Airways owner IAG fell 4.1% while low-cost airlines easyJet and Wizz Air dropped 2.2% and 1.8% respectively.
In New York, at the time of the London equities market close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.6%, the S&P 500 rose 0.4%, as did the Nasdaq Composite.
Across the pond, Oracle leapt 42%. After Tuesday’s US market close, the Texas-based cloud technologies-focused company astounded analysts as it reported a significant increase in bookings and gave an extremely bullish outlook for its cloud infrastructure business.
Chief Executive Safra Catz told investors that Oracle has made an “amazing start” to the financial year, signing significant cloud contracts with the “who’s who of AI”, including Meta, AMD and Nvidia.
Catz expects Oracle Cloud Infrastructure revenue to grow 77% to 18 billion dollars this financial year.
Ahead of Thursday’s consumer inflation figures, data showed US producer prices rose 2.6% year-on-year in August, easing from a 3.1% advance for July, and below 3.3% FXStreet consensus.
Month-on-month, prices fell 0.1% in August, after a 0.7% rise in July from June. It was the first monthly decline since April. The monthly figure undershot expectations of a 0.3% rise.
Excluding foods, energy and trade, producer prices rose 2.8% on-year in August, picking up speed from 2.7% in July. They rose 0.3% in August, easing from 0.6% in July from June.
The pound edged up to 1.3548 dollars late on Wednesday afternoon in London, compared to 1.3545 at the equities close on Tuesday. The euro nudged down to 1.1722 dollars, against 1.1724.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.06%, trimmed from 4.08% on Tuesday. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted at 4.71%, narrowed from 4.73%.
On the FTSE 100, retailers were a weak feature, not helped by softer-than-hoped-for sales at fast fashion business Primark, owned by Associated British Foods.
Shares in AB Foods tumbled 13% as analysts bemoaned “vague” guidance, soft sales at Primark and a less-than-sweet performance at its Sugar business.
AB Foods said sales growth at Primark, which generates around 47% of group revenue, is expected to be around 1% in the second half of the financial year to September 13 compared to the prior year, and below Visible Alpha consensus of 3.4%.
In addition, the firm said it expects the consumer environment to remain “uncertain”.
AJ Bell analyst Russ Mould said the idea that value retailers will automatically thrive in a period where consumers are watching their pennies “no longer stacks up”.
“Cheap prices do not mean goods will fly off the shelf, just as Primark has found out,” he said.
Marks & Spencer fell 3.0%, and Next eased 1.8%. Kingfisher dropped 1.7%, as did JD Sports Fashion.
Anglo American gained a further 1.7% as its tie-up with Teck Resources continued to be well received while Haleon, up 1.1%, benefited from an upgrade by Goldman Sachs to ‘buy’.
Elsewhere, Vistry fell 4.5% as it reported a drop in profit and revenue.
The Kent-based housebuilder reported pretax profit of £40.9 million for the six months that ended June 30, down 55% from £91.2 million a year earlier. Revenue fell 5.1% to £1.64 billion from £1.72 billion.
Vistry noted lower levels of demand from its affordable housing partners, which it said reflected uncertainty ahead of the June spending review, coupled with transitional funding constraints as part of the move towards a new social & affordable housing programme.
Serica Energy slid 14% as it said further maintenance is required at the Triton Floating Production Storage & Offloading unit, resulting in a temporary reduction in production.
The North Sea-focused oil and gas producer suspended production at the FPSO back in January, following issues resulting from Storm Eowyn.
In August, Serica Energy said production had resumed with activity ramping up in line with its expectations.
In addition, Dana Petroleum, which operates the Triton FPSO, has told the company that subsea intervention work on the Bittern field has been scheduled for November.
The resultant production deferrals mean that Serica’s production guidance for 2025 has been reduced to 29,000 to 32,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 33,000 to 35,000 boepd previously.
A barrel of Brent traded at 67.31 dollars on Wednesday afternoon, up from 66.31 on Tuesday. Gold firmed to 3,646.88 dollars an ounce on against 3,640.80 on Tuesday.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Prudential, up 33.4p at 1,027.0p, Polar Capital Technology Trust PLC, up 9.5p at 414.0p, BAE Systems, up 39.0p at 1,832.0p, HSBC, up 17.8p at 996.8p and Fresnillo, up 38.0p at 2,174.0p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Associated British Foods, down 295.5p at 1,945.5p, Relx, down 146.0p at 3,337.00p, IAG, down 16.2p at 381.7p, Auto Trader, down 25.2p at 788.2p and Marks & Spencer, down 10.6p at 342.1p.
Contributed by Alliance News
