LONDON MARKET CLOSE: FTSE 100 Drops 65 Points As Pound Reverses Losses

(Alliance News) - A session of mild gains turned sour as Tuesday progressed, with stocks in Europe dented by news of political chaos in Italy and the FTSE 100 suffering as the pound sought comfort in comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the backstop arrangement. The overseas earnings-heavy FTSE 100 index closed down 64.65 points, or 0.9%, at 7,125.00 on Tuesday, having traded as high as 7,231.65 in the morning.The FTSE 250 ended down 89.88 points, or 0.5%, at 19,008.09, and the AIM All-Share closed up 1.29 points, or 0.2%, at 865.70.The Cboe UK 100 ended down 1.0% at 12,071.70, the Cboe UK 250 closed down 0.3% at 16,913.33, and the Cboe Small Companies ended down 0.3% at 10,888.75.In European equities on Tuesday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended down 0.5%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt finished 0.6% lower."The re-emergence of the political collapse in Italy as another crisis for investors to fret over turned a muted-to-positive day of trading into something more troubling." said Connor Campbell at Spreadex. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told the Italian Senate he will tender his resignation at the end of the debate on his government prompted by far-right leader Matteo Salvini.Earlier in his speech, Conte said far-right Interior Minister Salvini was "irresponsible" to spark a political crisis by pulling the plug on the governing coalition. Salvini "violated the solemn promise he took when the government began that if there were differences they should be discussed in good faith and with loyal collaboration," Conte said as League Senators booed and hissed.Though not "intimately engrossed" in Italian politics, the FTSE 100 still managed to shed nearly 65 points as the pound reversed some early losses, said the Spreadex analyst."This despite a lack of good news Brexit-wise," commented Campbell. "The latest is No.10's insistence that there is 'no prospect of a deal' unless the withdrawal agreement is reopened, a rebuttal to Donald Tusk's thinly-veiled accusation that no 'realistic alternatives' are being offered up.""The currency appears, however, to be pinning its hopes on Angela Merkel's comments regarding finding a 'practical' solution to the backstop."UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a letter on Monday evening set out his call for the backstop - the contingency plan to avoid a hard border with Ireland - to be scrapped from the divorce deal ahead of the October 31 Brexit deadline.In the letter, Johnson said while he wants the UK to leave the EU with a deal, he could not support any withdrawal agreement that "locks the UK, potentially indefinitely, into an international treaty which will bind us into a customs union and which applies large areas of single market legislation in Northern Ireland".But European Council president Donald Tusk defended the measure and warned that those seeking to replace it would risk a return to a hard border on the island of Ireland.Johnson will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday and French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday for his first face-to-face talks with Europe's key powerbrokers.The pound was quoted at USD1.2152 at the London equities close Tuesday, only slightly higher compared to USD1.2139 at the close on Monday but off the session's sub-USD1.2100 lows.Meanwhile, the euro was also slightly softer amid the chaos in Italy, standing at USD1.1090 at the European equities close Tuesday, against USD1.1092 at the same time on Monday."EUR/USD hasn't moved much today as traders remain cautious of the single currency due to the political uncertainty in Italy, and the slide in CPI in the region," explained David Madden at CMC Markets.Stocks in New York were cautiously mixed at the London equities close, with the Down Jones flat, the S&P 500 index down 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.1%. In New York, Medtronic shares leapt 4.7% after the medical device company said revenue rose in the first quarter of its financial year, driven by strong growth from its Minimally Invasive Therapies Group and Restorative Therapies Group.In London, miner BHP ended among the fallers in the FTSE 100, closing down 3.0% after missing earnings consensus.For the 12 months to June, the mining giant's pretax profit rose 2.0% to USD15.05 billion the prior year, while underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation was broadly flat year-on-year at USD23.16 billion compared to USD23.18 billion. The figure fell short of the USD23.71 billion expected by analysts. BHP's annual revenue from continuing operations was USD44.29 billion, up 2.7% from a year earlier, but again below consensus of USD44.74 billion.Pest control firm Rentokil Initial dipped 2.3% after RBC cut its rating on the stock to Sector Perform from Outperform.Meanwhile, J Sainsbury rose to the top of the index following the latest grocery market share data from Kantar. Sainsbury's shares rose 3.1% as Kantar reported that the supermarket's overall sales fell by 0.6% in the 12 weeks to August 11 and its market share declined marginally to 15.4% from 15.5% a year ago."While each of the big four lost share, Sainsbury's will be cheered to be the strongest performer among this cohort for the first time since November 2017," highlighted Fraser McKevitt, head of Retail & Consumer Insight at Kantar Worldpanel.Among the rest of the 'Big Four', Tesco sales fell 1.6% while Wm Morrison Supermarket sales were down 2.7%. The two stocks ended down 1.7% and 1.0% respectively on Tuesday.Unlisted Asda - owned by US retailer Walmart - saw sales shrink 1.5%.In the FTSE 250, John Wood Group slipped 3.8% despite turning to an interim profit.In the six months to June 30, the oilfield services company reported a pretax profit of USD62.2 million compared with a loss of USD25.3 million in 2018, which at the time was attributed to the costs of its purchase of Amec Foster Wheeler. Pretax profit before exceptional items, like redundancy and restructuring outgoings, was USD91.1 million, representing a 20% rise from USD75.8 million from 2018. The company suffered a 2.6% year-on-year revenue fall, however, to USD4.79 billion from USD4.92 billion.In addition, John Wood said it will sell its nuclear business to Jacobs Engineering Group for USD305.0 million. Proceeds from the nuclear unit disposal will be used to reduce net debt and enable John Wood to take a "significant step towards achieving its target leverage policy".Pub operator Mitchell's & Butlers ended 6.6% higher after Canaccord raised the firm to Buy from Hold.In commodities, Brent oil was quoted at USD59.38 a barrel at the London equities close Tuesday from USD59.25 late Monday.Gold was quoted at USD1,503.09 an ounce at the London equities close Tuesday against USD1,501.04 at the close on Monday.In Wednesday's UK corporate calendar, there are interim results from banks Charter Court Financial Services and Onesavings Bank - which are progressing merger plans - as well as infrastructure services firm Costain Group.In the economic calendar, there is UK public sector net borrowing at 0930 BST and US existing home sales at 1500 BST, followed by the US Federal Reserve releasing minutes from its last policy meeting at 1900 BST.The release of the Fed minutes will be followed up by the Jackson Hole symposium kicking off on Thursday, which will see remarks from Chair Jerome Powell. 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