(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London were in the red on Tuesday midday amid a lack of major news, leaving investors waiting for further first-quarter earnings reports to give fresh impetus to trading.
The FTSE 100 index was down 81.02 points, or 1.2%, at 6,919.06. The mid-cap FTSE 250 was down 152.02 points, or 0.7%, at 22,337.84. The AIM All-Share index was down 0.6% at 1,243.90.
The Cboe UK 100 index was down 1.1% at 689.31. The Cboe 250 was down 0.7% at 20,007.59. The Cboe Small Companies was down 0.4% at 14,433.64.
Unemployment in the UK edged down to 4.9% in the quarter ending February, the National Statistics Office said Tuesday, with the jobless rate lower than expected.
The UK unemployment rate was 0.9 percentage point higher than a year earlier but 0.1 percentage point down from 5.0% in the three months ended January.
For December to February, an estimated 1.7 million people were unemployed, up 311,000 on a year before but down 50,000 on the quarter, the first quarterly decrease since October to December 2019.
Market consensus, according to FXStreet, forecast the rate at unemployment rate in the quarter to February at 5.1%.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 index in Paris was down 1.3% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was down 0.6%.
"Weakness in European markets has been exacerbated by the strength in the euro and sterling, which have enjoyed good gains against the dollar over the past few sessions," commented Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG.
The euro was priced at USD1.2051 midday Tuesday, firm from USD1.2029 late Monday. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar was quoted at JPY108.42, firm from JPY108.06.
The pound was quoted at USD1.3971 midday Tuesday, soft from USD1.3984 at the London equities close Monday. Sterling was trading around the USD1.37 level last week.
The EU will have enough Covid-19 vaccine doses to cover 70% of its adult population by mid-July due to higher production within the bloc, a senior official said on Tuesday.
EU governments have faced fierce criticism over the bloc's vaccine procurement efforts, which saw a slow start to its inoculation drive, even as programmes raced ahead in Britain and the US.
Already half of American adults have had at least one dose, and as of Monday anyone over 18 can sign up for a shot.
In the EU, by contrast, just over 20% of adults have received at least one jab, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
In the FTSE 100, Avast was the best performer, up 3.9% at midday Tuesday. The cybersecurity provider said it has made a "good start" to the year with continued demand for its security, privacy and performance solutions. Revenue for the three months to the end of March grew by 11% year-on-year to USD237.1 million.
The Consumer Direct business continued to deliver good growth, Avast said, while the SMB business also sustained its positive momentum.
For the first quarter, adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization increased 10% to USD133.7 million, resulting in an adjusted Ebitda margin of 56.4%. However, Avast said guidance for its adjusted Ebitda margin for the full 2021 remains broadly flat versus the prior year.
Halma was up 0.3% after UBS upped the safety equipment company to Buy from Neutral.
At the other end of the blue-chip index were tobacco firms. British American Tobacco was down 6.8% and Imperial Brands down 7.1%. The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported that the administration of US President Joe Biden is considering a rule to cut nicotine in cigarettes.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the WSJ reported that the cut would leave the amount of nicotine in cigarettes at levels which are no longer addictive.
Associated British Foods was down 2.6% despite awarding shareholders with dividend as Primark once again became cash generative, after stores were allowed to reopen last week.
AB Foods declared a 6.2 pence a share payout for the 24 weeks to February 27 after not paying dividends for its previous financial year.
The company reported a 8% decline in pretax profit for the half-year to GBP275 million, as revenue fell by 17% to GBP6.31 billion year-on-year. On a constant currency basis, revenue came in 18% lower.
The performance was hurt by the impact on its Retail division of the measures taken to control the spread of Covid-19, AB Foods explained.
Elsewhere, the Sugar arm continued to deliver a much-improved performance, driven in the first half by Illovo, the company said. Grocery delivered a strong result through a combination of successful new product launches and increased volumes through retail sales channels, it said. Profit at both AB Agri and Ingredients also were well ahead of last year.
Looking forward, AB Foods said, following the exceptional performance of its Grocery, Sugar, Agriculture and Ingredients businesses in the first half, it expects a softer performance in the second half.
However, the company noted that it continues to expect the profit for Primark to be somewhat lower than last year.
In the FTSE 250, Hammerson was down 5.2%. The shopping centre investor noted that footfall across its retail assets in England "is encouraging". Non-essential stores were allowed to re-open in England on Monday, after being closed for more than three months due to virus lockdowns.
"Across a seven-day average, footfall at our flagships is around four-fifths of that achieved in the same week in April 2019. This is an improvement of approaching 50% points on reopening in June 2020," Hammerson said.
So far, it has collected 51% of rent due for the first quarter of the year and 46% for the first half. For 2020, the year just gone, it has collected 78% so far.
In addition, the company named Himanshu Raja as chief financial officer, succeeding James Lenton who gave notice of his resignation back in January. Himanshu previously served as CFO of security services firm G4S.
Moneysupermarket.com was down 2.4% midday Tuesday. The comparison website said first-quarter performance was in line with expectations, given ongoing market disruption. Total revenue for the three months to the end of March was GBP85.5 million, a decline of 20% on the prior year.
Revenue dropped across all of its businesses for the three months, with the company blaming the "disruption" caused by the pandemic along with the "continuation of tightened lending criteria". Insurance revenue was down 21%, Money by 26%, Home Services by 15% and 'Other' by 14%. TravelSupermarket revenue remained negligible due to travel restrictions.
"We are moving ahead with our updated strategy, enhancing how we manage our data and starting to attract customers more efficiently. Several channels remain impacted by Covid-19, but we are well positioned to weather this period and return shortly to profitable growth," said Chief Executive Peter Duffy.
Brent oil was quoted at USD67.60 a barrel Tuesday midday, up from USD66.79 late Monday. Gold was trading at USD1,769.80 an ounce, lower from USD1,773.63.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index were both called down 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite was seen opening 0.3% lower.
The US earnings season picks up pace this week, with video streaming platform Netflix due to report first-quarter results after the New York market close on Tuesday.
Consumer goods firm Procter & Gamble reported its financial third-quarter results, saying pretax earnings were up 11% from a year before to USD3.88 billion on net sales of USD18.11 billion. It declared a quarterly dividend of USD0.7907 per share, up from USD0.7459.
Johnson & Johnson posted a sales rise and lifted its annual forecast after a busy first-quarter for the US pharmaceutical firm.
The three-month period to the end of March will be better-remembered for the company's Covid-19 vaccine, which secured regulatory backing in the US and the EU during the quarter. Since the initial approvals, there have been fears that the jab could be linked to extremely rare blood clots.
Europe's drug regulator was expected to rule on the safety of the vaccine on Tuesday. The US is also expected to announce its decision on the single-shot jab by Friday.
In the first quarter of 2021, J&J said sales rose 7.9% to USD22.32 billion, from USD20.69 billion a year earlier. Pretax profit jumped 14% to USD7.43 billion from USD6.51 billion.
The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company's numbers showed it booked USD100 million in Covid-19 vaccine sales during the quarter.
J&J upped its quarterly payout by 5.0% to USD1.06 per share from USD1.01.
Neflix was down 0.2% in pre-market trade in New York. P&G was up 0.1%, and J&J was down 0.5%.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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