LONDON MARKET OPEN: Stocks Open Lower As Turkish Meltdown Fears Mount

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened lower on Monday as investors fretted about trade tariffs and the plunging Turkish lira, which touched a new record low in early trade. The FTSE 100 index was down 0.4%, or 32.26 points, at 7,634.75. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down 0.4%, or 88.81 points, at 20,578.64. The AIM All-Share index was down 0.3% at 1,084.45.The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.4% at 12,935.39, the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.3% at 18,696.63, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was flat at 12,292.91.Sterling was marginally lower against the dollar, quoted at USD1.2738 early Monday, compared to USD1.2776 late Friday.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 2.0%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 0.7%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 1.5%.The Turkish lira hit a fresh record low early Monday after closing down as much as 16% on Friday as US President Donald Trump doubled steel and aluminium tariffs on Turkey, raising concerns the country may plunge into a financial crisis.Turkey's central bank has said it will "provide all the liquidity the banks need", after the lira plunged to a record low on Asian markets.The lira afterwards has erased some of its losses Monday morning, rising to 6.65 against the dollar from more than 7 to the dollar."One of the key sticking points is the intransigence from President Ergodan - whose appointment of his son-in-law as minister of Finance & Treasury has cast doubt on the independence of the Turkish central bank - over keeping interest rates unchanged despite eye-wateringly high inflation and the lira's heavy losses," said Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell."That means the various non-rate hike measures announced on Monday to stabilise the currency - including the promise to provide 'all the liquidity the banks need' - will likely be limited in their effect," Campbell added. In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.1% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was down 0.4% early Monday.The euro was quoted at USD1.1382, down from USD1.1414 at the European equities close Friday.On the London Stock Exchange, BAE Systems led a handful of blue chip risers, up 2.8% after Morgan Stanley raised the defence stock to Overweight from Equal Weight.British American Tobacco was second best performer, up 2.4% and peer Imperial Brands was up 0.1%.Tobacco producers are deemed defensive stocks and often rise during times of market turmoil.At the other end of the large-cap index, Russian steelmaker Evraz was down 3.0% extending its losses from Friday. The stock closed down 7.0% on Friday. Late Thursday, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the country was "working out retaliation measures" in response to new "unfriendly" moves by the US.Earlier, the US announced it planned to extend its sanctions against Russia. These were in response to alleged responsibility of the Russian government for the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK city of Salisbury in March. Russia denies involvement.Paddy Power Betfair was down 2.9% after Citigroup cut the bookmaker to Sell from Neutral. In the FTSE 250, Clarkson was up 4.5% after Liberum raised the shipping firm to Buy from Hold.Clarkson said Monday its interim earnings suffered from challenging trading conditions but it remains confident heading into the second half of the year. Elsewhere on London's Main Market, Chemring Group was down 16% after it confirmed that one employee died and another was hurt in accident at its site near Salisbury on Friday.The military equipment company said the worker was killed, and another "badly" injured, at its flare manufacturing building on its Chemring Countermeasures facility.The incident, Chemring continued, damaged some equipment, and production is now temporarily halted. Chemring has started an investigation into the accident, as well as the potential financial ramifications.It did say, however, that underlying operating profit for its financial year ending October is likely to be around GBP10 million to GBP20 million lower than previously expected as a result of the accident. In domestic economic news, total retail footfall in the UK fell in July, though the High Street saw a lift as hot weather drove consumers outside, the latest BRC/Springboard Retail Footfall Monitor showed. For the four weeks to July 28, total retail footfall in the UK fell 0.8% year-on-year, broadly in line with the previous month's 0.9% decline, and compared to a 1.1% drop in July 2017. Retail park footfall was down 0.5% in the period, compared to a 1.7% rise a year earlier and below the three-month average of minus 0.1%. Shopping centre footfall tumbled 3.4%, steeper than the 1.3% fall registered a year earlier. However, High Street footfall grew 0.3% on a year before. This marked the third consecutive month of growth, and compares to a 2.1% fall in July 2017. The reading was in line with the three-month rolling average of 0.3% growth.In other economic news, Ireland's construction growth accelerated in July amid strengthening demand, survey data from IHS Markit showed.The Ulster Bank construction Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 60.7 in July from 58.4 in June. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector.