LONDON (Alliance News) - Worries over a crisis in Turkey with the lira slumping to record lows saw stocks in London end in the red on Monday, though easing off their worst lows of the session."It appears that the measures announced by the Turkish central bank this morning seemed to ease some of the panic, allowing the lira to cap its losses," said Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell.Stocks exposed to emerging markets ended among the worst performers in London, while insurer
Esure shot up more than 30% on news it is in "advanced" talks to be taken over in a GBP1.2 billion deal.The FTSE 100 index closed down 0.3%, or 24.56 points at 7,642.45, having hit an intraday low of 7,614.48. The FTSE 250 ended down 0.5%, or 92.34 points, at 20,575.11, and the AIM All-Share closed down 0.2%, or 2.38 points, at 1,084.79.The Cboe UK 100 ended down 0.2% at 12,963.17, the Cboe UK 250 closed down 0.3% at 18,703.73, and the Cboe Small Companies ended down 0.2% at 12,271.64.Turkey's central bank announced market-boosting measures to stem the rout of the lira on Monday, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the US amid an escalating trade and diplomatic row between the NATO allies.The Turkish lira plunged overnight on Monday to record lows in Asian trading, at times trading at more than TRY7 to the dollar and more than TRY8 to the euro. The currency's freefall was a continuation of Friday's plunge of more than 20% against the dollar.Erdogan has remained defiant in the face of the crisis, railing against "economic terrorists," an "economic war" and "bullies of the global system," and warned of forming new alliances with Russia and China.In European equities on Monday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended flat, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended down 0.5%.Stocks in New York were mixed at the London equities close, with the Dow Jones down 0.2%, the S&P 500 index flat, and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.2%. Spreadex's Campbell said: "Markets managed to calm down as Monday went on...investors may want more concrete action as the week goes on, however, namely a long-needed currency-rescuing, inflation-slashing interest rate hike."European currencies also managed to pare some of their losses, with the pound quoted at USD1.2763 at the London equities close Monday, compared to USD1.2776 at the close on Friday.The euro stood at USD1.1408 at the European equities close Monday, against USD1.1414 at the same time on Friday.Despite the uncertainty surrounding Turkey, gold - usually thought of as a safe haven asset - declined to be quoted at USD1,196.00 from USD1,213.46 at the close on Friday. The precious metal on Monday slipped below the USD1,200 mark for the first time since March 2017.Meanwhile, Brent oil was quoted at USD72.26 a barrel at the London equities close Monday from USD72.84 late Friday.Among the fallers on the London Stock Exchange were companies exposed to emerging markets as Turkish jitters took hold.
Mondi,
Mediclinic International and
Investec - all dual-listed in Johannesburg as well as London and thus exposed to the rand, among one of the emerging market currencies to be knocked as the Turkish lira tumbled - closed down 1.3%, 3.7% and 2.6% respectively."The rand's movements will be influenced by further bouts of risk aversion caused by Turkey. Action by the Turkish authorities to try and stabilise the lira have become an important issue to watch," said John Cairns and Kim Silberman at RMB Global Markets.Emerging markets-focused investment manager
Ashmore Group closed 5.4% lower, while
DP Eurasia - master franchisee of the Domino's Pizza brand in Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan and Georgia - slumped 15%.Outside of emerging markets-driven movements, bookmaker
Paddy Power Betfair closed down 1.9% after Citigroup cut the stock to Sell from Neutral.Ending as the best performer in the FTSE 250 was car & home insurer Esure, closing 31% higher at 267.20 pence on news it is in "advanced" talks to be taken over by Bain Capital Private Equity.Bain Capital has submitted a proposal to buyout Esure at 280p per share in cash, a 37% premium to the company's closing price of 204p on Friday. With 419.1 million issued shares, the offer values Esure - which reports half-year results on Tuesday - at around GBP1.17 billion."The board of esure has indicated to Bain Capital that it would be minded to recommend a firm offer for Esure if made by Bain Capital at the price set out in the proposal," said esure.The news drove share prices of other insurers higher, with blue-chips
Admiral Group and
Direct Line Insurance closing up 1.6% and 1.3%, respectively. Among the mid-caps,
Hastings Group Holdings ended up 4.4%.
Clarkson finished as the second best performer in the FTSE 250, up 6.6% as it posted a fall in profit for the first half but looked towards improved market dynamics over the remainder of the year.For the six months ended June 30, the shipping firm said revenue was down 2.7% to GBP152.6 million from GBP156.8 million a year before. Pretax profit declined 18% to GBP18.0 million from GBP21.9 million last year.On an underlying basis, pretax profit fell even more steeply, by 22% to GBP19.2 million from GBP24.5 million last year.The shipping services firm noted that conditions in some of its markets improved in the second quarter, with Clarkson standing to benefit from these trends over the remainder of the year.Elsewhere on the Main Market,
Plus500 shed 16% despite the contract-for-difference provider posting a sharp rise in revenue and profit for the first half.Revenue for the half shot up to USD465.5 million from USD188.4 million a year before and pretax profit nearly tripled to USD346.4 million from USD116.3 million.However, in a conference call discussing the results, Chief Executive Officer Asaf Elimelech and Chief Financial Officer Elad Even-Chen said that the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation margin of 75% achieved in the first half of the year, is "not sustainable".Instead the company is targeting a margin of around 65%."75% is something doable but not sustainable, let's be frank about it, if you would like to see an increased level of operations going forward we are targeting more the 65% something like that," the pair said.In the corporate calendar on Tuesday, miner
Antofagasta, plastic piping & ventilation systems manufacturer
Polypipe and social housing & care sector services provider
Mears Group report interim results.In the economic calendar on Tuesday are Chinese retail sales at 0300 BST, followed by Japanese industrial production at 0530 BST. Later in the morning is German GDP and CPI, both at 0700 BST, with French CPI at 0745 BST. Eurozone GDP is at 1000 BSTIn the UK, average earnings and the unemployment rate are at 0930 BST.
