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(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London were mostly lower at midday on Friday, with the FTSE 100 on track to end the week lower.
BT shares were under pressure after the UK opposition Labour Party vowed to nationalise the telecoms provider's Openreach broadband arm.
The UK large-cap index was down 42.86 points, or 0.6%, at 7,249.90. The FTSE 250 was down 45.05 points, or 0.2%, at 20,186.75, but the AIM All-Share was up 1.18 points, or 0.1% at 889.25.
The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.7% at 12,288.62. The Cboe UK 250 was down 0.3% at 18,117.07 and the Cboe UK Small Companies was down 0.2% at 11,263.71.
In Paris the CAC 40 was up 0.1%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was down flat.
On the London Stock Exchange, Whitbread was the best blue-chip performer, up 3.0% after Barclays upgraded the Premier Inn hotel chain owner to Overweight from Equal Weight.
At the other end of the large cap index, Berkeley Group was the worst performer, down 3.1% after Goldman Sachs downgraded the housebuilder to Sell from Neutral.
BT Group was down 2.3%. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn pledged to nationalise Openreach. BT's arms-length Openreach division maintains most of the UK's broadband infrastructure.
Ahead of next month's UK general election, Labour intends to bring parts of BT into public ownership under plans it said will result in a massive upgrade in the UK's internet infrastructure. Labour has costed the policy at GBP20 billion, saying it will deliver free full-fibre internet to every home and business by 2030 if it ascends to power. It aims to put an end to patchy and slow coverage, boosting 5G connectivity across the UK.
In response, BT Chief Executive Officer Philip Jansen said Labour had dramatically under-estimated the price of its pledge, saying it would cost closer to GBP100 billion.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "Current polling suggests Labour is unlikely to win a majority in the looming election, however if the party was to enjoy a late surge in the polls, BT shareholders might start to get a little bit more nervous.
"There is also a risk that Labour's idea proves popular with voters and other parties feel compelled to move at least some way in this direction."
Midcap broadband provider TalkTalk Telecom Group was down 3.2%, as it also reported interim results.
TalkTalk said it swung to first-half profit and affirmed its guidance for the full-year. In the six months to September 30, revenue fell 3.6% to GBP792.0 million from GBP822.0 million last year, on declining carrier revenues and the firm exiting mobile virtual network operations, a measure it announced in May 2017. The company swung to a pretax profit of GBP1.0 million from a GBP4.0 million loss last year.
TalkTalk recommended an interim dividend of 1.00 pence, flat year-on-year.
The pound was quoted at USD1.2875 at midday, firm against USD1.2855 at the London equities close Thursday.
The euro stood at USD1.1032 at midday, up from USD1.1000 at the European equities close Thursday.
In economic news from the continent, inflation in the euro area eased slightly in October, according to eurostat.
The annual inflation rate for the euro area was 0.7% in October, slowing from 0.8% the previous month. In October 2018, inflation stood at 2.3%. The highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate, eurostat said, came from services, food, alcohol, & tobacco, non-energy industrial goods, and energy.
Stocks in New York were set for a higher open on US-China trade optimism. The DJIA and the S&P 500 index were both called up 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite was pointed up 0.3%.
Top US White House adviser Larry Kudlow said that the long-awaited mini trade deal with China was on track as part of a wider pact.
"The deal is not complete but we've made enormous progress," he told reporters, adding that the talks were "coming down to the short strokes".
Kudlow's comments follow a week of unease about the much-vaunted talks, after US President Donald Trump dismissed Chinese claims of a plan to roll back tariffs as the negotiations progress, while reports said Beijing was uneasy about some aspects of the developing deal.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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