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* Industrial stocks eye best performance in 23 years
* Travel and leisure hit by Omicron fears
* Ashtead the top YTD performer on FTSE 100
* UK markets to close early on Friday
* FTSE 100 down 0.2%, FTSE 250 adds 0.1%
(Updates to close)
Dec 30 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 fell on Thursday,
after hitting 22-month highs in the previous session, as a surge
of COVID-19 cases offset optimism over the economic recovery in
thin year-end trading.
The FTSE 100 ended 0.2 lower, with consumer staple
and industrial stocks weighing on the benchmark index, while the
domestically focused mid-cap index gained 0.1%.
Britain reported a record 183,037 COVID-19 cases on
Wednesday, over 53,000 more than the previous high registered
just a day earlier, with the Omicron variant accounting for 90%
of all community infections.
Large dollar earners including Diageo, Unilever
, British American Tobacco, Reckitt Benckiser
fell between 0.1% and 1.1%, weighed down by a stronger
pound.
Oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell fell
nearly 0.6% each after top consumer China cut import quotas.
The FTSE 100 has gained 14.8% so far this year and is
heading for its best annual performance in 12 years despite
concerns around the new Omicron coronavirus variant.
Industrial stocks have outperformed the FTSE
100 and the FTSE 250 this year, gaining 32% and on track for
their best yearly performance since 1998. Ferguson,
Pagegroup, Diploma and Mitie group
have added more than 50% this year.
"There has been a cracker of a performance this year from
companies which have shared on the spoils of reopening after the
pandemic," said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets
analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
"As demand bounced back for commodities and industrial
components, chemicals and services, companies like Ashtead,
Glencore and Meggitt and Croda International have been pushed to
the top of the FTSE 100 leader board this year"
Rental equipment provider Ashtead Group has surged
75% so far this year, leading the gains on the FTSE 100 index.
UK markets will close early on Friday for the New Year's Eve
holiday.
(Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Amal S in Bengaluru;
Editing by Devika Syamnath and Alison Williams)
