LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in London were lower Friday morning, with soft drinks bottler Coca Cola HBC leading the FTSE 100 decliners following a first-quarter update "slightly behind market expectations".
The FTSE 100 was down 0.5%, or 32.63 points, at 6,071.56. The FTSE 250 was down 0.2% at 16,630.03 and the AIM All-Share was down 0.1% at 724.55.
Oanda analyst Craig Erlam noted it has been a week of consolidation for the markets, "during which there has been periods of volatility and yet most markets are not far from where they opened on Monday."
"Given that most of the week has been relatively slow from a news flow perspective, it's perhaps not surprising that we've seen some consolidation, the question now is whether this potentially signals an exhaustion of recent trends or just a break," Erlam said.
Coca-Cola HBC said reported volumes were broadly stable in the first quarter, with good growth in emerging markets offsetting a weaker performance in developing and emerging countries.
The group said total volumes grew 0.1% in the quarter to the end of March, with developing markets volumes up 1.9% and emerging markets growing 1.3% year-on-year, offsetting a 2.7% decline in established markets volumes. Net sales revenue, however, declined 2.7% in the quarter, primarily driven by currency weakness. In constant currencies, net sales revenue increased 2.0%.
Coca Cola HBC shares were down 3.2% soon after the open, the worst blue-chip performer. Shore Capital analyst Phil Carroll said the trading statement was "slightly behind market expectations".
"Overall, a slight miss from a forecasts perspective, but the underlying performance was slightly stronger than the figures suggest, due to one less trading day," said Shore's Carroll.
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' shares were down 0.9%, after the oil major said it estimates around 2,100 barrels of oil have leaked from its subsea wells in the Gulf of Mexico, forcing the group to shut-in production from four wells that flow to the Brutus platform.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which is based close by in New Orleans, said the oil sheen is around two miles by thirteen miles in size and around 97 miles south of Port Fourchon, which is Louisiana's most southern port.
A subsidiary of the oil major, Shell Offshore, reported the incident to authorities after noticing the leak in the area of its Glider Field, a group of four subsea wells located in Green Canyon Block 248. The production from those wells flows through a subsea manifold to Shell's Brutus platform, but all of those wells are now shut-in. Importantly, no injuries have been reported and no evacuation activities have been necessary.
Shell Offshore, in its own statement, said "no release is acceptable" but stressed there is no drilling in the area and that the matter is not a "well control incident," suggesting the leak will not get any larger.
RSA Insurance was down 2.3% after Australian bank Macquarie cut the insurer to Underperform from Neutral.
In the FTSE 250, shares in Micro Focus International were down 1.5%. Investment vehicle Wizard sold the majority of its stake in the software company via a placing, raising GBP362.0 million in the process, Numis Securities said.
Wizard sold 24.1 million Micro Focus shares, 11% of the company's equity, in the placing at 1,505.00 pence per share. Shares in the company closed at 1,505.00p on Thursday. Following the sale, which was run by Numis together with Credit Suisse Securities (Europe), Wizard will hold a 2.6% stake in Micro Focus.
Smiths Group was down 1.5% after Jefferies downgraded the engineer to Hold from Buy.
In Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.9% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was down 0.8%.
The German economy gained pace in the first quarter, data published by Destatis showed Friday.
Gross domestic product expanded 0.7% sequentially in the first quarter, faster than the 0.3% growth in previous three months and 0.6% growth forecast by economists. GDP climbed 1.3% on a yearly basis, weaker than the 2.1% expansion seen in the previous quarter. On a calendar-adjusted basis, GDP growth improved to 1.6% from 1.3%.
Still ahead in the economic calendar Friday, French nonfarm payrolls are scheduled for 0845 BST, while EU GDP data are due at 1000 BST. In the US, PPI figures are expected at 1330 BST, followed by the Reuters/Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index and business inventories at 1500 BST.
In Asia on Friday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended down 1.4%. In China, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 1.6%.
By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com
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