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LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened lower on Monday after a weak set of Chinese economic data, with shares in FTSE 100 property developer British Land down after reporting its full-year results.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.5%, or 33.74 points, at 6,104.76. The FTSE 250 was down 0.1% at 16,626.93, and the AIM All-Share was flat at 724.31.
Miners Anglo American, Antofagasta and BHP Billiton were leading a handful of blue-chip gainers, while higher crude prices were keep oil producers out of the red in a declining market. BP was up 0.5% and Royal Dutch Shell 'A' shares up 0.4%.
Brent oil was quoted at USD48.46 a barrel soon after the open, having hit a high in early trade of USD48.63 a barrel, its highest level since early November. The North Sea benchmark stood at USD47.85 at the London equities close on Friday.
British Land shares were down 1.2%. The property developer said its current committed development pipeline is "modest", but said there were significant opportunities across its portfolio, as it posted a slip in full-year pretax profit on lower valuation gains. British Land reported a pretax profit of GBP1.33 billion for its financial year that ended March 31, down from GBP1.79 billion a year earlier, despite revenue rising to GBP590.0 million from GBP556.0 million.
British Land said this was "primarily due to a reduced level of property valuation movement reflecting the slowdown in yield compression and the recent increase in stamp duty on commercial property". For the recently ended financial year, British Land's valuation movement was a positive GBP616.0 million, down from a positive GBP884.0 million the year earlier.
Shares in Coca Cola HBC were down 1.2%, adding to the losses seen on Friday, when the soft drinks bottler shed 3.5% after reporting a first-quarter update slightly behind market expectations.
Victrex was up 4.6%. The FTSE 250-listed specialty chemicals company said on Monday its pretax profit and revenue dipped in the first half amid mixed trading in end markets, though it forecasts an improvement in the second half. Victrex said pretax profit for the half to the end of March was GBP47.5 million, down 12% from the GBP53.9 million made a year earlier.
Revenue for the half fell 10% to GBP117.0 million from GBP130.3 million, and the group's gross margin declined 200 basis points to 62.9% from 64.9% year-on-year, mostly due to new plant costs. Victrex said it will pay a flat interim dividend of 11.73 pence.
N+1 Singer analyst James Tetley said Victrex published a "reassuring set of interims".
"We remain at Buy and believe the shares are undervalued, given the medium term growth potential, attractive dividend and 20 year track record of success," Tetley noted.
Crest Nicholson Holdings was up 2.1%. The housebuilder said it has seen signs that both sales prices and build costs are moderating in its first half, as it said it was continuing its strategy to grow its average selling price.
Crest Nicholson said it is on track to reach its stated target of GBP1.00 billion revenue for the full year to October 31, after having seen a good performance in its first half to April 30.
Unit completions rose 7.0% in the half-year to 1,206,compared to the same period a year earlier. Forward sales at the end of April, excluding private rented sector, were at GBP324.0 million, up around 8.0% from the GBP300.0 million reported a year earlier.
Technical products and services company Diploma was up 1.5% after saying profit declined in the first half of its financial year despite a rise in revenue as currency effects and acquisition costs hit operating margin.
Diploma said pretax profit for the six months to March 31 was GBP25.6 million, down 2.0% year-on-year from GBP26.0 million. Revenue grew 10% to GBP179.1 million from GBP163.2 million, but the group's adjusted operating margin shrunk to 17.2% from 18.1% due to currency effects on its healthcare business and costs related to recent acquisitions.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo ended up 0.3%. In China, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.6% and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 0.8%.
China's industrial production and retail sales grew by less than expected in April, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed over the weekend, hitting hopes of stabilisation in the world's second-largest economy.
Industrial production rose 6% year-on-year, which was less than the 6.5% growth economists had forecast. In March, production increased 6.8%. Retail sales, meanwhile, rose 10.1% year-on-year in April, which was also less than the 10.6% gain economists' had expected.
The National Bureau of Statistics attributed the slower growth in production to weak external demand, poor performance in the mining industry, rising commodity prices and seasonal factors.
Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said the weaker data in China indicated recent stimulus measures that Chinese authorities have taken to prop up economic growth have "started to show signs of wearing out".
The fall in retail sales, Hewson noted, was "particularly worrying" given they had been on an "upward track" since May 2015 but have seen this positive trend reverse sharply in recent months.
Meanwhile trading activity in Europe will be light Monday due to public holidays taking place in France, Germany and Switzerland, which are celebrating Whit Monday. Whilst the Frankfurt market is closed, stocks were open for trading in Paris, with the CAC 40 index reading down 0.6%.
On Friday, Wall Street closed lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.1%, the S&P 500 down 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.4%.
In the US economic calendar Monday, Empire State manufacturing index is due at 1330 BST and the NAHB Housing Market Index at 1500 BST.
By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com
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