FTSE retreats in choppy trade
UK shares stumbled on Tuesday, with equipment rental company Ashtead the top faller on the FTSE 100 index.
|||London - UK shares stumbled on Tuesday in choppy trade, after broker downgrades hit the shares of Ashtead Group, while a fall in the European luxury sector weighed on Burberry.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was 0.3 percent lower at 6,181.78 points by 08h23 GMT, slightly outperforming the broader European market.
“It doesn't look to me like we're seeing a strong correction yet in terms of risk-seeking,” Ken Odeluga, market analyst at City Index, said.
The top faller on the index was equipment rental company Ashtead Group, which dropped over 4 percent after investment bank HSBC downgraded its rating on the stock to “hold” from “buy” based on findings about the age of its fleet.
“Upon a closer examination, Ashtead's fleet may not be materially younger than that of the peers, at least on a basis that matters commercially,” analysts at HSBC said in a note.
Intu Properties also suffered from a target price cut from Societe Generale, which sent its shares 2.8 percent lower.
Hospitality company Whitbread fell 2.8 percent after the boss of Costa, a chain of coffee shops which it operates, left the company.
Luxury goods company Burberry was also lower, down 2.8 percent following a miss in Q1 earnings from its French peer LVMH, which was impacted by subdued tourist shopping in key markets such as France and Hong Kong.
Miners were the top gainers, led higher by a 5.8 percent rise in Anglo American. The company said that rough diamond sales during the third cycle of the year continued their reasonably positive trend.
The mining sector was up 3 percent, supported by steady copper prices and encouraging economic signals from China.
“Commodities have been rallying very strongly since about February... and that has obviously given miners a bit of a tailwind,” City Index's Odeluga said.
REUTERS