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(Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened mostly lower on Tuesday after the long holiday weekend despite calls for a higher open, with Bunzl lower after pointing to supply chain issues and softening Covid-19 sales.
The FTSE 100 index was down 8.69 points, or 0.1%, at 7,138.51. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down 24.04 points, or 0.1%, at 24,036.38. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.1% at 1,283.07.
The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.1% at 712.41. The Cboe 250 was down 0.1% at 21,866.52, and the Cboe Small Companies was flat at 15,521.81.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 stock index in Paris was flat, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.4%.
In the FTSE 100, Weir Group was the best performer, up 3.8%, after Peel Hunt upgraded the engineer to Buy from Hold.
InterContinental Hotels Group was up 1.3% after Societe Generale raised the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza owner to Buy from Hold.
At the other end of the large-caps, Bunzl was the worst performer, down 3.0%, after the distribution firm pointed to a "reversal" in Covid-19 related sales, despite a rise in interim earnings.
For the six months that ended June 30, revenue was GBP4.87 billion, up 0.4% from GBP4.85 billion last year and pretax profit was GBP275.7 million, up 12% from GBP245.4 million.
Chief Executive Officer Frank van Zanten said: "Whilst we are now seeing a reversal in Covid-19 related sales, this has been more than offset by the recovery experienced in our base business over the first half. The group's performance over the first half and the excellent underlying revenue growth we have delivered over a two year period demonstrate the resilience of our diversified portfolio."
In addition, Bunzl did flag up supply chain issues within its results. It noted supply chain challenges in areas such as North America, Mexico and Australia.
At the other end of the large-caps, British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines Group was down 2.9% on wider concerns around the travel sector.
The European Union on Monday recommended that its member states reimpose travel restrictions on US tourists over rising Covid-19 infections in the country.
The European Council, which represents the bloc's 27 governments, said it was taking six territories off its list of locations exempted from restrictions on non-essential travel during the coronavirus pandemic. The move is not binding on national capitals, which may yet choose to allow fully vaccinated US travellers to visit despite concerns about rising numbers of Covid cases in the country.
Midcap airlines easyJet and Wizz Air were the worst performers, down 3.4% and 3.2% respectively. Irish carrier Ryanair Holdings was 2.3% lower.
Computacenter was the best performer in the FTSE 250, up 2.8%, after the IT services provider said trading has continued to be robust across all of of its geographies in July and August to date.
The company said the "exceptionally good performance" in the second half of 2020 makes a more difficult comparison than it experienced in the first half of this year. However, even with a flat performance in the second half of 2021 compared to the second half of last year, the company said it would finish the year 10% ahead of current market expectations for the group's full year 2021 adjusted pretax profit. It posted adjusted pretax profit of GBP200.5 million in 2020.
In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 1.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.5%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 0.8%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney ended up 0.4%.
China's services sector contracted in August for the first time since the start of the pandemic while factory activity slowed further, data showed, as domestic coronavirus travel curbs hit demand for transport and tourism.
The non-manufacturing purchasing managers' index, a key gauge of activity in China's services and construction sectors, fell to 47.5 in August from July's 53.3, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
The measure for factory activity, manufacturing PMI, came in at 50.1 in August from July's 50.4. Anything above 50 indicates expansion, while below that figure points to contraction.
China's economic recovery was dealt a blow in the summer by its largest coronavirus outbreak for months as authorities locked down millions and curbed travel during the peak summer tourism period.
The pound was quoted at USD1.3790 early Tuesday, up from USD1.3752 at the London equities close Friday.
The euro stood at USD1.1825, up from USD1.1788. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY109.85, down from JPY109.92.
Brent oil was quoted at USD73.22 a barrel, up from USD72.28 at the London equities close Friday. Gold was trading at USD1,816.05 an ounce, higher against USD1,807.81.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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