London open: FTSE falls as Trump tariffs fuel recession fears; payrolls eyed
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Friday 04 Apr 2025
(Sharecast News) - London stocks suffered more losses in early trade on Friday as Trump's sweeping tariffs fuelled recession fears, and as investors eyed the release of the latest US non-farm payrolls report.
At 0830 BST, the FTSE 100 was down 0.5% at 8,428.75, having closed 1.6% lower on Thursday.
Investors were mulling comments from International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva, who said that US tariffs were "a significant risk to the global outlook".
She said in a statement that it was "important to avoid steps that could further harm the world economy" and appealed to the US and its trading partners "to work constructively to resolve trade tensions and reduce uncertainty".
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said: "The March payrolls figure seems very stale and out of date after this week's tariff announcements. Friday's payrolls data will not be impacted by Trump's extreme tariffs, we will need to wait for the coming months to see how this could impact the hard US economic data, which has only moderated slightly, compared to a sharp fall in the soft economic data since the start of 2025. Either way, payrolls are always worth watching.
"The market is expecting no major surprises from the March report, with 140k non-farm jobs expected to be created, the unemployment rate is expected to remain stable at 4.1%, and average hourly earnings are expected to have grown by 4% YoY, within the long-term range."
In equity markets, it was a similar story to Thursday in terms of which sectors were winning and which were losing, with banks under the cosh but defensive utilities on the rise.
Standard Chartered, NatWest, Barclays and HSBC fell, while SSE, Severn Trent and United Utilities gained.
BP slumped after the oil giant said that its chair was stepping down amid calls by investor groups for a shake-up of the board.
Helge Lund, who has held the role since January 2019, will leave "in due course", BP said, most likely in 2026 once his successor has been appointed.
The announcement comes less than a month after activist investor Follow This said it would call for a vote against Lund's reappointment at April's shareholder meeting.
The group is angry that Lund did not offer an investors a say on BP's decision to scrap its energy transition targets.
Elsewhere, Travis Perkins rallied after an upgrade to 'buy' from 'hold' by Stifel, which said the risk/reward was compelling at a historically low share price.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 8,428.75 -0.54%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,148.78 -0.32%
techMARK (TASX) 4,569.06 -0.08%
FTSE 100 - Risers
SSE (SSE) 1,708.00p 3.33%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,257.00p 2.36%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,752.00p 2.19%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,092.50p 2.01%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,957.00p 1.97%
Diageo (DGE) 2,067.00p 1.57%
Haleon (HLN) 400.80p 1.55%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,851.00p 1.40%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 5,344.00p 1.37%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 66.20p 1.32%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Standard Chartered (STAN) 960.20p -3.88%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,509.00p -3.39%
Barclays (BARC) 261.80p -3.36%
NATWEST GROUP (NWG) 437.30p -3.36%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,940.60p -3.16%
Glencore (GLEN) 253.15p -2.93%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 782.60p -2.75%
Smurfit Westrock (DI) (SWR) 3,197.00p -2.14%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 68.28p -2.04%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 242.90p -1.98%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Savills (SVS) 996.00p 3.64%
Frasers Group (FRAS) 597.00p 2.58%
Softcat (SCT) 1,636.00p 2.44%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 524.00p 2.04%
Pennon Group (PNN) 480.80p 1.61%
Caledonia Investments (CLDN) 3,560.00p 1.57%
Foresight Environmental Infrastructure Limited (FGEN) 71.40p 1.56%
Elementis (ELM) 130.00p 1.40%
Chemring Group (CHG) 405.50p 1.38%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 70.05p 1.30%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Mitie Group (MTO) 112.40p -4.42%
AJ Bell (AJB) 389.00p -3.57%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 265.40p -3.14%
Dr. Martens (DOCS) 48.10p -2.95%
Lion Finance Group (BGEO) 5,140.00p -2.84%
Close Brothers Group (CBG) 278.80p -2.31%
Investec (INVP) 428.00p -2.28%
TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 3,945.00p -2.23%
Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 185.00p -2.22%
Harbour Energy (HBR) 190.70p -2.21%
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