FTSE 100 movers: Banks and housebuilders slide amid Brexit turmoil
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Thursday 15 Nov 2018
(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 was down 0.6% to 6,989.69, with UK-focused stocks under the cosh amid Brexit turmoil.
Stocks with exposure to the UK such as housebuilders and banks were under pressure amid Brexit concerns, after senior UK cabinet ministers including Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab resigned just hours after Theresa May's cabinet approved a withdrawal agreement with the European Union.
Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments, Berkeley Group and RBS were all in the red.
IG analyst Chris Beauchamp attributed the drop in banks to worries that the sector will be squeezed between rising inflation and a weakening UK economy.
Meanwhile, housebuilders were also weighed down by an update from FTSE 250 peer Bovis Homes, which warned earlier that uncertainty about Brexit was putting off discretionary homebuyers.
George Salmon, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Bovis typifies how the UK housebuilders are dividing opinion in the markets. Greg Fitzgerald has done a sterling job of improving the group's operating performance and balance sheet, and the shares offer an attractive yield of 10%. All the while, supportive government policies like Help to Buy are providing a tailwind.
"However, Brexit is proving to be a fly in the ointment. The housing market is already slowing, and the worry is it grinds to a halt in the event of a disorderly Brexit - which would clearly be bad news for the builders. A weak secondary market means around 15% ofBovis' transactions now rely on part-exchange, hardly reassuring. Overall, the sector looks something of a binary bet at the moment."
Private equity firm 3i Group was also on the back foot as it posted an 11% jump in first-half investment returns but sounded a cautious note on the outlook.
On the upside, precious metals miners Randgold and Fresnillo shone as gold prices rallied.
Antofagasta was boosted by news that it has approved a $1.3bn expansion of its Los Pelambres copper mine in Chile. The expansion will produce additional ore equal to an extra 60,000 tonnes a year of refined copper over the first 15 years of the expansion project, lifting the mine's output for the first time in over a decade.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,338.00p 5.46%
Fresnillo (FRES) 855.20p 4.57%
Evraz (EVR) 540.60p 4.00%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 659.60p 3.87%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 787.40p 3.36%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,421.00p 2.67%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,380.00p 2.63%
Sage Group (SGE) 561.80p 2.29%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 481.30p 2.23%
Relx plc (REL) 1,622.00p 2.21%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Persimmon (PSN) 2,129.00p -9.48%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 225.50p -9.11%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 148.83p -8.19%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 503.80p -7.70%
3i Group (III) 797.20p -7.30%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,807.50p -6.83%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 244.90p -6.78%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,165.50p -6.76%
SSE (SSE) 1,112.00p -6.63%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,429.00p -6.26%
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