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(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened lower on Monday with ongoing US-China tensions weighing on sentiment, while travel stocks remained under pressure amid a resurgence of Covid-19 cases on the continent.
High-level talks between the US and China set to take place over the weekend on their "phase one" trade agreement were called off, with no new date agreed upon for talks to resume.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump kept up his drumbeat against Beijing, warning he could target more Chinese tech firms including Alibaba.
The president's warning came as he issued another executive order stating internet giant ByteDance must sell its interest in the Musical.ly app it bought and merged with TikTok. The move follows an order last week that TikTok and WeChat end all operations in the US.
In London, the blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down 6.66 points, or 0.1%, at 6,083.38. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down 34.36 points, or 0.3%, at 17,701.26. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.3% at 950.83.
The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.3% at 608.69. The Cboe 250 was flat at 15,174.68, and the Cboe Small Companies was flat at 9,610.65.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 index in Paris was down 0.2%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was 0.1% lower.
In the FTSE 100, Mexican gold miner Fresnillo was the best performer, up 1.8%, and Russian gold miner Polymetal International was up 1.2%, both tracking spot gold prices higher.
Gold was quoted at USD1,954.87 an ounce Monday morning, up from USD1,945.10 an ounce Friday evening.
Burberry Group was up 0.8% after Jefferies raised the luxury fashion retailer to Hold from Underperform.
At the other end of the large-cap index, British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines was the worst performer, down 4.5%, having closed down 4.8% on Friday.
The UK government's decision to impose a 14-day self-isolation quarantine on travellers from France due to rising numbers of coronavirus cases in the country came into effect over the weekend.
The quarantine conditions also apply to travellers returning to or visiting the UK from the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks & Caicos and Aruba.
In addition, over the weekend Germany declared nearly all of Spain, including the tourist island of Mallorca, a coronavirus risk region following a spike in cases.
Spain has seen a surge in new infections since it lifted its three-month lockdown measures in June.
The move dealt a blow for hopes for a swift recovery in tourism after months of lockdown to stop the spread of the virus all but wiped out this year's high season for tourism in Europe.
Anglo-German travel operator Tui was down 5.0%.
In the FTSE 250, Cranswick was the best performer, up 5.0% after the pork and poultry products supplier said it expects annual results ahead of its expectations.
For the 13 weeks to June 27, Cranswick said revenue was 25% ahead of the first quarter the year before, while like-for-like revenue was 19% higher.
Cranswick said as a result of the current shift towards greater in-home consumption, retail demand has been "exceptionally robust". This - combined with increased poultry sales from its new Eye facility, which continues to perform strongly, and the benefit from new contract wins - has comfortably offset lower foodservice revenue, the company said.
The positive performance has so far continued in the second quarter of the financial year, Cranswick said.
"Whilst the board remains cautious about the longer-term economic impact of Covid-19, the uncertainty surrounding the ongoing Brexit negotiations, and the conclusion of trade deals with other countries, the outlook for the current financial year ending March 27, 2021 is now expected to be ahead of its previous expectations," Cranswick said.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.8%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended up 2.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.2%.
Japan's economy shrank a record 7.8% in the April-June quarter, the worst contraction in the nation's modern history, data showed, as the coronavirus deepens the country's economic woes.
The contraction from the previous quarter was slightly worse than expectations but is still significantly less severe than declines seen in many other industrial economies.
Still, it is the worst economic contraction for Japan since comparable data became available in 1980, eclipsing the brutal impact of the 2008 global financial crisis.
The economy contracted an annualised 28%, with domestic demand falling 4.8% and exports of goods and services plunging 19%.
The pound was quoted at USD1.3101 early Monday, flat from USD1.3104 at Friday's equities close in London.
The euro was priced at USD1.1855, up from USD1.1832. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JPY106.56 in London, firm from JPY106.48.
In commodities, Brent oil was trading at USD45.18 a barrel Monday morning, up from USD44.70 a barrel Friday evening in London.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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