London midday: Stocks nudge lower as consumer confidence slumps
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Thursday 23 Jan 2025
(Sharecast News) - London stocks had nudged lower by midday on Thursday as investors mulled a slide UK in consumer confidence.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.1% at 8,537.98.
A survey released earlier showed that consumer sentiment has weakened to fresh lows, as the new year got off to a sluggish start.
According to the latest consumer sentiment monitor from the British Retail Consortium, expectations for the next three months have softened across a number of areas.
The personal finance situation dropped to -4 in January, down one point on December, while the state of the economy eased to -34 from -27.
Respondents also signalled they intended to spend less now the festive season was over. Personal spending on retail fell to -9 from -3, while spending overall declined to 4 from 11.
In contrast, expectations for personal saving in the current quarter increased to -3 from -5 a month earlier.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: "As the government warns of tough times ahead, it is little surprise that the public have caught the January blues.
"Concerns [are] most pronounced among older generations. Gen Z (18-to-27 year olds) remain the only group to expect the economy to improve, while two thirds of 60-to-78 year olds expect things to get worse.
"Expectations of retail spending and wider spending both fell significantly, though much of this is likely to be at the end of the Christmas period, as people tightened their belts for the new year."
Looking ahead to the rest of the day, US President Donald Trump is due to a make a virtual appearance at Davos.
"Coming off the back of the decision to leave the WHO and Paris Accord, this appearance is likely to lay out a relatively combative America First approach that involves a raft of tariffs aimed at redressing the balance of trade back in favour of the US," said Joshua Mahony at Scope Markets.
In equity markets, Associated British Foods fell as it cut its outlook for Primark sales growth in 2025. It said warmer autumn weather and cautious consumers dented UK revenue in the 16 weeks to 4 January.
AB Foods said it was now targeting low-single digit sales growth for Primark, down from previous guidance of mid-single digit.
Trading platform CMC Markets tumbled after a very brief update, in which it said it remained on track to deliver annual net operating income in line with previous guidance.
Shore Capital analyst Vivek Raja said: "The share price has been strong over the past couple of weeks, so to the extent the market was expecting a more positive trading update today (perhaps more news on how the Revolut partnership has progressed), we could imagine weakness today."
Elsewhere, car dealership Inchcape was knocked lower by a downgrade to 'neutral' from 'overweight' at JPMorgan.
JD Sports was weaker after a downgrade to 'neutral' from 'buy' at Citi.
On the upside, precision instruments supplier Spectris surged after saying it expects to beat market expectations with its 2024 results, with adjusted operating profit for the year set to be above the upper end of analysts' forecasts of £183.3m to £201m, but still down from £262.5m in 2023.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 8,537.98 -0.08%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,550.00 -0.15%
techMARK (TASX) 4,706.05 0.28%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Weir Group (WEIR) 2,394.00p 1.87%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) 2,294.00p 1.59%
Centrica (CNA) 136.55p 1.22%
Next (NXT) 9,608.00p 1.12%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,992.00p 1.12%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,630.00p 1.08%
Spirax Group (SPX) 7,690.00p 0.98%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,496.00p 0.97%
easyJet (EZJ) 489.30p 0.93%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 981.40p 0.86%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Entain (ENT) 677.60p -4.13%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 80.66p -2.80%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,885.00p -2.68%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,495.50p -2.39%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 333.30p -1.77%
Glencore (GLEN) 371.05p -1.63%
Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 21,490.00p -1.56%
Games Workshop Group (GAW) 14,130.00p -1.53%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,013.50p -1.36%
Informa (INF) 826.40p -1.29%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Spectris (SXS) 2,980.00p 10.37%
Rotork (ROR) 346.00p 3.41%
Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) 263.50p 2.73%
Greencoat UK Wind (UKW) 121.60p 2.27%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 2,165.00p 2.12%
PPHE Hotel Group Ltd (PPH) 1,270.00p 2.01%
Mitie Group (MTO) 116.00p 1.75%
Auction Technology Group (ATG) 608.00p 1.50%
HICL Infrastructure (HICL) 109.60p 1.48%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 68.90p 1.47%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
CMC Markets (CMCX) 227.50p -14.15%
Inchcape (INCH) 671.50p -10.70%
Harbour Energy (HBR) 273.50p -5.46%
Victrex plc (VCT) 1,010.00p -5.08%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 184.60p -4.55%
IG Group Holdings (IGG) 1,025.00p -4.47%
Ithaca Energy (ITH) 129.70p -3.93%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 319.10p -2.89%
Foresight Solar Fund Limited (FSFL) 71.00p -2.47%
Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 2,778.00p -2.39%
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