LONDON (ShareCast) - London equities finished lower for a second straight day, with investors being put off by the recent gyrations in the market, although the early close of some US markets ahead of the Memorial Day weekend may also have played a role.

Market commentary is a tad divided regarding the direction which equities will take in the very short-term. Of interest however, the FT’s James Mackintosh points out how the rise in sovereign bond yields may have detracted from defensive stocks’ allure – curiously, they have led in the recent stock market up-trend, as they have been acting as substitutes for fixed income instruments.

Worries about the Federal Reserve scaling back its asset purchase programme prematurely and a negative reading of factory activity in China saw markets across the globe tumble on Thursday, with the FTSE 100 falling 2.1% and Japan's Nikkei dropping a massive 7.3%.

Investors were also casting a wary eye towards Japan’s government bond markets, despite Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s pledge on Friday morning that the monetary authority will take all the steps necessary to quell the recent volatility in the same. Some market commentary pointed out the risk that such violent movements in bond yields could seriously hamper the central bank of Japan’s attempts to reflate the economy.

Linked to all of the above, and reflective of the diminished risk-appetite, the Japanese Yen continued to strengthen Friday and by the close was changing hands at 101.06 Yen in its cross versus the US dollar.

Even so, many saw these recent sharp swings in global stocks as near inevitable, with investors looking to book profits after the strong gains seen by equity markets so far this year - before yesterday's slump the FTSE 100 had risen nearly 16% since the start of 2013.

Back in the UK, Bank of England Markets Director Paul Fisher, one of the central bank’s rate-setters, said he favours small additional amounts of bond purchases over time as opposed to the US Federal Reserve’s commitment to longer-term stimulus.

You go first, investors say

ENRC and Polymetal were among the worst performers as they tracked metals prices lower, followed closely behind by RBS and HSBC. Even Standard Chartered registered losses despite Investec labelling the stock as one of the cheapest in the UK banking sector. In that same vein, in afternoon trading UBS raised its view on the UK banking sector to outperform from neutral.

HSBC was the main drag on the benchmark for a good part of the session due to reports that its $1.9bn settlement with US authorities, over money laundering, may have stalled.

Smiths Group, the global technology firm, was slightly higher after saying that its full-year guidance remains unchanged after underlying revenues and profits in the first three quarters were ahead of last year.

According to top investors in water-company Severn Trent any take-over offer would have to be greater than £23 per share for it to have any chance of success, Reuters reported.

Retail group Next was a heavy faller after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock from 'equal weight' to 'underweight', saying it prefers sector peer Marks & Spencer.

International Airlines Group was a top faller throughout the latter half of the session after a British Airways flying out London's Heathrow airport was forced to turn back due to a technical fault.

BT Group was downgraded by analysts at JP Morgan Cazenove to neutral from outperform.

IT infrastructure firm Computacenter rose after giving details of a £75m cash return for investors.

Engineering data and IT group AVEVA extended gains after yesterday's results in which it revealed a £100m cash return to shareholders. Credit Suisse raised its target price for the shares this morning.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Shire Plc (SHP) 2,168.00p +1.59%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,355.00p +1.50%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,071.00p +1.42%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,407.00p +1.22%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,166.00p +1.04%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,298.00p +0.93%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 479.10p +0.86%
National Grid (NG.) 836.00p +0.78%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 475.00p +0.61%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 194.55p +0.52%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 254.80p -4.03%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 327.00p -3.02%
Polymetal International (POLY) 648.50p -2.48%
Next (NXT) 4,580.00p -2.37%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 726.00p -2.13%
BT Group (BT.A) 307.70p -2.04%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 273.00p -1.97%
BG Group (BG.) 1,194.00p -1.85%
Evraz (EVR) 146.30p -1.75%
ITV (ITV) 130.10p -1.74%

FTSE 250 - Risers
BTG (BTG) 353.70p +4.18%
Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 489.60p +4.17%
Aveva Group (AVV) 2,390.00p +3.78%
Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 44.00p +3.02%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,287.00p +2.96%
Britvic (BVIC) 519.00p +2.06%
St James's Place (STJ) 584.00p +1.92%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 412.90p +1.72%
Ted Baker (TED) 1,490.00p +1.50%
Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 338.00p +1.47%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Halfords Group (HFD) 300.00p -9.99%
Close Brothers Group (CBG) 1,006.00p -7.71%
FirstGroup (FGP) 127.40p -5.35%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 263.50p -4.74%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 247.30p -4.48%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 326.10p -4.34%
Rank Group (RNK) 146.20p -4.13%
QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 190.30p -3.89%
African Barrick Gold (ABG) 130.30p -3.70%
Pace (PIC) 250.00p -3.62%

FTSE TechMARK - Risers
Parity Group (PTY) 32.00p +13.27%
Emblaze Ltd. (BLZ) 50.00p +9.29%
DRS Data & Research Services (DRS) 21.50p +2.38%
Optos (OPTS) 135.00p +2.08%
Vectura Group (VEC) 88.00p +1.15%
Sepura (SEPU) 115.00p +0.88%
Filtronic (FTC) 62.00p +0.81%
Xaar (XAR) 634.50p +0.71%
XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 1,229.00p +0.16%
Innovation Group (TIG) 27.25p 0.00%

FTSE TechMARK - Fallers
Vislink (VLK) 30.25p -2.81%
RM (RM.) 72.25p -2.36%
Skyepharma (SKP) 48.25p -1.78%
Ricardo (RCDO) 400.00p -0.99%
NCC Group (NCC) 111.00p -0.89%
Consort Medical (CSRT) 768.00p -0.84%
Wolfson Microelectronics (WLF) 220.50p -0.45%
Torotrak (TRK) 29.38p -0.42%
Kofax (KFX) 325.00p -0.31%
Innovation Group (TIG) 27.25p 0.00%

AB

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:

• DIGG
• FACEBOOK
• STUMBLEUPON
• MIXX
• YAHOO BUZZ
• DELICIOUS
• REDDIT
• NEWSVINE