Leading shares have fallen back, with some profit taking in mining shares and a slide in Lloyds Banking Group following its figures.
Antofagasta is the biggest faller so far, down 40.5p at 500p after it said full year copper production would be at the lower end of its guidance and suggested it might reconsider a hydroelectric project at its Los Pelambres mine because of cost overruns.
Other miners have given up some of their recent gains, with Anglo American down 21.5p at 1092.5p and BHP Billiton 22.5p lower at 1238.5p. A dip in the oil price on continuing doubts about whether production curbs can be agreed by Opec next month has also hit sentiment in the commodities sector.
Meanwhile Lloyds Banking Group has lost 1.74p to 53.61p after it unveiled a fresh £1bn provision for mis-selling payment protection insurance.
Overall the FTSE 100 has fallen 63.37 points to 6954.27, not helped by new Brexit worries. Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex, said:
The market got another dose of Brexit negativity this Wednesday morning, with the Resolution Foundation claiming that Britain faces a £84 billion black hole in the next half a decade.
That report immediately dragged on the FTSE, which fell by 0.5% after the bell. The pound seemed slightly less effected by the news; against the dollar it saw flat, just below the 1.22 mark it slipped under yesterday, while against the euro it shed another 0.2%.
The Resolution Foundation’s warning wasn’t all weighing on the UK index, however.... The FTSE was also dealing with the 3% slide seen by Lloyds following its third quarter report, with the bank revealing it had incurred another £1 billion charge related to the mis-selling of PPI.
Supermarkets were lifted by positive comments from Goldman Sachs, with Tesco up 1.6p at 211.75p and Sainsbury 1.7p better at 241.9p.
Goldman also helped FirstGroup, up 1.7p to 106.5p, as it raised its target price from 146p to 168p.
Elsewhere education group Pearson is down 5.5p at 741p following reports it is considering a disposal. Ian Whittaker at Liberum said:
The Economic Times in India reports that Pearson is in talks to sell part or all of their online education company TutorVista. The article suggests that Pearson will have to sell the assets at a loss given there has been a revenue decline. Pearson has not commented but a sale of part or all of the business would raise further questions on Pearson’s strategy, its M&A track record and, probably less so, whether the sale is being used to raise cash. Reiterate Sell.
