London close: Stocks finish higher as lockdown easing optimism continues
By Josh White
Date: Tuesday 02 Jun 2020
(Sharecast News) - London stocks closed in the green on Tuesday, maintaining their gains through the afternoon amid optimism over lockdown easing.
The FTSE 100 ended the session up 0.87% at 6,220.14, and the FTSE 250 was 0.92% firmer at 17,436.31.
Sterling was mixed against its major trading pairs, last rising 0.33% on the dollar to $1.2533, but weakening 0.03% against the euro to €1.1217.
"For a second day the FTSE 100 is dominated by stocks finding strong inflows thanks to a more optimistic outlook on the global economy," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG.
"Airlines, travel, engineering, oil and luxury retail are all featured in the big gainers in London this morning, continuing yesterday's bounceback theme."
The positive tone came despite growing unrest in the US over the killing of George Floyd as President Trump threatened to send in the army.
On home shores, a survey released earlier by Nationwide showed that UK house prices fell 1.7% in May in the steepest drop since the financial crisis.
The month-on-month decline was the biggest since February 2009 and followed the near shutdown of the property market during the Covid-19 crisis.
Meanwhile, the annual rate of house-price growth more than halved to 1.8% from 3.7% a month earlier and was well below expectations for a 2.8% drop.
The average house price fell to £218,902 from £222,915 in May even though the government eased restrictions to allow the market to reopen in the middle of the month.
Nationwide, the UK's biggest building society, said transactions would be affected for some time with potential buyers wary during what is expected to be a deep recession.
The UK housing market was showing signs of revival in early 2020 after years in the doldrums caused by uncertainty over Brexit.
Covid-19 restrictions had forced estate agents to close and barred physical house viewings, effectively closing the market.
Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the figures suggested weak confidence would lead to further declines.
"The big month-to-month drop ... surely is just the start of a protracted decline over the remainder of this year," Tombs said.
"The huge size of the blow from Covid-19 to households' incomes and the deterioration in consumers' confidence suggests that house prices must drop: we look for a 5% decline in prices by the end of the third quarter."
Figures from the Bank of England showed mortgage approvals tumbled to a near 30-year low in April as the pandemic and lockdown measures brought the UK property market to a halt.
According to the bank, the number of mortgage approvals for house purchase was 15,800 in April, down on March's figure of 56,100 and around 80% lower than February.
It is the lowest level since the series began in 1993, and around half the number of approvals seen during the trough of the 2008/09 financial crisis.
Analysts had been expecting a fall, but most had pencilled in a less severe decline, with consensus for around 24,000 mortgage approvals.
Consumer credit also took a hit, as households reduced the amount they borrowed.
New gross borrowing was £11.8bn in April, around 50% down on February, while repayments also fell sharply, by 19% since February, which was attributed to repayment holidays.
In equity markets, Meggitt was up 9.3%, Rolls-Royce added 4.85% and Melrose Industries advanced 7.87%, with traders pointing to the fact that Boeing has resumed production of the 737 MAX.
Meanwhile, budget airline easyJet and British Airways owner IAG rose, by 2.63% and 3.55% respectively.
Elsewhere, miner Glencore was lifted 3.08% by an upgrade to 'buy' at Renaissance Capital.
Shopping centre owner Hammerson surged 34.4% following an upbeat update from Westfield owner Unibail-Rodamco.
Industrial products distributor Electrocomponents was in the black by 4.7% even after it deferred its final dividend until it had a clearer view of the coronavirus pandemic's impact as sales fell 14% in the first eight weeks of the current year.
Private hospital operator Mediclinic International was up 8.44% after it reported a widening of its full-year losses due to impairment charges but noted improving trends in May.
Retirement housebuilder McCarthy & Stone was also trading higher, by 3.21%, after saying its sales offices and construction sites would start to reopen from the Covid-19 lockdown on 8 June and that fewer of its residents had died than in the wider older population.
On the downside, Tesco fell 1.32% after saying it is looking for a new chief financial officer after Alan Stewart decided to retire from the supermarket group.
Cruise operator Carnival was also lower, slipping below the waterline during afternoon trading to end the day down 1.01%.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,220.14 0.87%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,436.31 0.92%
techMARK (TASX) 3,746.66 -0.15%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Meggitt (MGGT) 312.70p 9.30%
British Land Company (BLND) 441.00p 8.35%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 128.90p 7.87%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 655.40p 6.02%
BP (BP.) 328.60p 5.66%
Next (NXT) 5,408.00p 5.47%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 300.40p 4.85%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 120.55p 4.51%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,249.00p 4.43%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,370.00p 4.06%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,748.50p -4.53%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,425.00p -2.73%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 2,172.00p -2.56%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,956.00p -1.96%
Fresnillo (FRES) 793.60p -1.95%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 8,565.00p -1.86%
Halma (HLMA) 2,267.00p -1.66%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 185.50p -1.56%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,636.00p -1.27%
BT Group (BT.A) 117.60p -1.26%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Hammerson (HMSO) 110.85p 34.40%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 43.90p 15.49%
Senior (SNR) 67.80p 10.60%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 297.40p 8.38%
Ibstock (IBST) 200.60p 8.37%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 58.65p 8.11%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 85.94p 7.72%
Investec (INVP) 159.00p 6.53%
Just Group (JUST) 56.80p 6.17%
Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 1,542.00p 5.62%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Marston's (MARS) 62.60p -5.59%
Sanne Group (SNN) 625.00p -5.30%
Future (FUTR) 1,250.00p -4.14%
Royal Mail (RMG) 171.30p -3.33%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 199.20p -2.83%
PayPoint (PAY) 742.00p -2.78%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 163.30p -2.65%
GCP Infrastructure Investments Ltd (GCP) 113.00p -2.59%
Greencore Group (GNC) 134.00p -2.55%
Genus (GNS) 3,386.00p -2.36%
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