London open: Stocks fall on tariff woes; Intertek bucks trend
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Tuesday 04 Mar 2025
(Sharecast News) - London stocks fell in early trade on Tuesday, taking their cue from heavy losses in the US as concerns about tariffs rattled markets.
At 0855 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 0.5% at 8,828.21.
Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The FTSE 100 has retreated from record highs this morning, taking direction from Wall Street where stocks had their worst day of the year so far.
"The time for talking on tariffs is up for now with Donald Trump imposing a blanket 25% border tax on all imports from neighbouring Canada and Mexico. Canada's hit back already with a 25% charge on $30bn of US imports with more wide-ranging reciprocal action planned for the end of the month."
China has also announced retaliatory tariffs of up to 15% one some US goods from 10 March.
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, oil giants BP and Shell gushed lower as oil prices plunged.
Derren Nathan said: "Brent crude is now priced at under $71 per barrel as both supply and demand dynamics exert downward pressure on the value of oil. 10% of extra duties on Chinese goods have also come into effect and the potential fall-out of an all-out trade war on energy demand is at the front of traders' minds.
"Meanwhile, OPEC+ has unexpectedly announced that it will re-open the taps on 2.2 million barrels of daily oil production from 1 April."
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%.
Greggs tumbled even as the bakery chain said annual sales passed £2bn for the first time helping to serve up an 8.3% rise in pre-tax profit to £204m.
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 its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation by more than double to $1.55bn.
Keller Group rallied as it hailed "another outstanding set" of full-year results ahead of expectations, with improved performance in all key measures.
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) 8,828.21 -0.49%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,283.71 -0.48%
techMARK (TASX) 4,838.97 -0.10%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Intertek Group (ITRK) 5,430.00p 5.33%
Fresnillo (FRES) 771.50p 2.32%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,480.00p 1.85%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 978.40p 1.54%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 788.40p 1.49%
BAE Systems (BA.) 1,634.00p 1.40%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 12,068.00p 1.38%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,144.00p 1.29%
Tesco (TSCO) 382.80p 1.27%
Spirax Group (SPX) 7,240.00p 1.26%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Smurfit Westrock (DI) (SWR) 3,895.00p -4.91%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,596.00p -4.23%
BP (BP.) 415.65p -3.95%
Shell (SHEL) 2,571.50p -3.20%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,004.00p -2.90%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 7,810.00p -2.86%
WPP (WPP) 624.00p -2.41%
3i Group (III) 3,918.00p -2.37%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 337.60p -2.20%
Glencore (GLEN) 316.55p -2.13%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Abrdn (ABDN) 184.00p 13.58%
Keller Group (KLR) 1,446.00p 12.27%
Bridgepoint Group (Reg S) (BPT) 364.80p 4.71%
Inchcape (INCH) 703.50p 3.38%
Auction Technology Group (ATG) 594.00p 2.95%
Urban Logistics Reit (SHED) 117.60p 2.62%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 724.50p 1.97%
Spectris (SXS) 2,680.00p 1.59%
Assura (AGR) 41.42p 1.57%
Pennon Group (PNN) 414.60p 1.52%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Greggs (GRG) 1,872.00p -10.09%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 73.70p -5.75%
NCC Group (NCC) 126.00p -5.69%
Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) 100.10p -4.76%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,500.00p -4.64%
International Workplace Group (IWG) 190.80p -4.26%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 243.40p -4.14%
Harbour Energy (HBR) 217.80p -4.10%
Mobico Group (MCG) 66.10p -3.85%
Allianz Technology Trust (ATT) 387.50p -3.73%
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