London close: FTSE tumbles as Trump tariffs kick in
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Tuesday 04 Mar 2025
(Sharecast News) - London stocks fell sharply on Tuesday as Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico kicked in, prompting retaliatory measures and rattling markets.
The FTSE 100 ended down 1.3% at 8,759.00.
Patrick Munnelly at Tickmill Group said: "UK stocks mirrored a global downturn on Tuesday, weighed down by new US tariffs on major trading partners and declining oil prices that hit energy shares. The blue-chip FTSE 100 fell 0.65%. US President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, while duties on Chinese goods were raised to 20%.
"These measures have heightened fears of retaliatory tariffs potentially being introduced next month, triggering a global market slump and driving up demand for safe-haven assets like government bonds. The oil and gas sector suffered the steepest losses, plunging 3% to its lowest level in over a month after OPEC+ confirmed plans to increase oil production in April, the first such move since 2022."
Canada has already announced that retaliatory tariffs on CAD30bn of US imports would take effect immediately, while China said tariffs of up to 15% one some US goods from 10 March.
Meanwhile, Mexico's president said she would announce retaliatory tariffs on Sunday.
On home shores, data from the British Retail Consortium and NielsenIQ showed that shop prices were lower in February when compared with last year, as cheaper non-food items offset the impact of costlier food products, but inflation is expected to pick up over the course of 2025.
According to the Shop Price Index for last month, shop price deflation was unchanged at an annual rate of -0.7%.
Non-food deflation accelerated to a year-on-year rate of -2.1% following a 1.8% decline in prices in January, though annual food inflation rose to 2.1% from 1.6%.
Nevertheless, when compared with the month before, shop prices actually increased by 0.4%, with both food and non-food prices rising, marking the biggest increase over the past year.
"Breakfast, in particular, got more expensive as butter, cheese, eggs, bread and cereals all saw price hikes. Climbing global coffee prices could threaten to push the morning costs higher in the coming months," said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC.
In equity markets, equipment rental firm Ashtead slid despite saying it expects full-year results to rise in line with previous guidance, after a record performance over the first nine months of the year, with rental revenues up 5% and adjusted EBITDA up 3%.
Oil giants BP and Shell gushed lower as oil prices plunged.
Biotechnology company Oxford Nanopore slumped as it warned of "material uncertainty and risk" surrounding its US business after Donald Trump said he would cut federal government spending by up to $1.0trn per year.
Greggs dropped as the bakery chain said sales slowed again at the start of the new financial year, citing "challenging" weather conditions in January. Like-for-like sales in company-managed shops increased by 1.7% year-on-year in the first nine weeks of 2025. Challenging weather conditions in January were followed by improved trading in February, Greggs said.
On the upside, Intertek surged as it hiked its full-year dividend and launched a £350m share buyback programme to reward shareholders after a strong 2024 performance, with results helped by recent acquisitions.
The laboratory testing and certification business also raised its medium-term margin target after achieving its current target faster than expected.
Fresnillo shone as the precious metals miner posted a big jump in full-year sales and operating profits. Revenues rose by 26.9% to $3.64bn and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation by more than double to $1.55bn.
Keller Group rallied as the geotechnical engineering company reported an increase in underlying annual profits that beat market expectations and a share buyback programme, bolstered by a record year-end order book.
Asset manager Abrdn gained as it said it was putting the missing vowels back into its name and reported a swing back into the black.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 8,759.00 -1.27%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,950.50 -2.12%
techMARK (TASX) 4,803.96 -0.82%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Intertek Group (ITRK) 5,385.00p 4.46%
Fresnillo (FRES) 780.00p 3.45%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,512.00p 3.16%
Tesco (TSCO) 388.70p 2.83%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 374.60p 2.71%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 3,438.00p 2.63%
Pearson (PSON) 1,379.00p 2.15%
GSK (GSK) 1,509.00p 1.99%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,617.00p 1.72%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,156.00p 1.68%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Smurfit Westrock (DI) (SWR) 3,678.00p -10.21%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 7,296.00p -9.25%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,404.00p -8.23%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 319.20p -7.53%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 970.00p -6.19%
Barclays (BARC) 292.40p -6.01%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) 2,204.00p -5.81%
BP (BP.) 408.00p -5.72%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,526.00p -5.29%
Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 20,550.00p -5.26%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Keller Group (KLR) 1,392.00p 8.07%
Abrdn (ABDN) 174.45p 7.69%
Urban Logistics Reit (SHED) 117.80p 2.79%
Supermarket Income Reit (SUPR) 71.30p 2.15%
Genus (GNS) 1,874.00p 1.85%
Safestore Holdings (SAFE) 610.00p 1.67%
Bluefield Solar Income Fund Limited (BSIF) 89.00p 1.60%
Spectris (SXS) 2,680.00p 1.59%
Cranswick (CWK) 4,950.00p 1.23%
Empiric Student Property (ESP) 82.60p 1.10%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) 91.30p -13.13%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 226.10p -10.95%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 70.70p -9.59%
Carnival (CCL) 1,553.50p -9.21%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 75.25p -9.17%
Greggs (GRG) 1,904.00p -8.55%
IP Group (IPO) 38.50p -8.44%
Mobico Group (MCG) 63.05p -8.29%
Senior (SNR) 163.20p -6.96%
Ibstock (IBST) 152.40p -6.62%
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