London midday: Ex-divs weighs on stocks as investors mull GDP

(Sharecast News) - London equity markets were still a little weaker by midday on Thursday, with ex-dividend stocks proving to be a drag as investors digested the latest UK GDP reading.

The FTSE 100 was down 0.2% at 7,209.43.

AJ Bell financial analyst Danni Hewson noted that the top-flight index remains above the 7,200 mark and is in touching distance of Wednesday's post-pandemic highs.

"For now there appear few big catalysts to shift the index in either direction amid a lull in major corporate and economic updates - however that's often when something emerges from leftfield to upset the apple cart."

Data released earlier by the Office for National Statistics showed the economy grew by 4.8% between April and June as lockdown restrictions eased, in line with expectations.

This was close to the 5% growth predicted by the Bank of England last week and left the economy 4.4% below its pre-pandemic peak.

In the month of June, GDP rose 1%, which was ahead of the 0.8% expected by economists. However, May's increase was revised down to 0.6% from 0.8%.

The services sector was the biggest contributor to growth. In June, health, hospitality, and advertising services were the main contributors to the growth in services. The ONS said visits to GPs increased in June compared with recent months, while NHS Test and Trace services and vaccine schemes across also continued to contribute positively to overall output levels in health.

ONS deputy national statistician Jonathan Athow said: "The UK economy has continued to rebound strongly, with hospitality benefiting from the first full month of indoor dining, while spending on advertising was boosted by the reopening of many services."

ING economist James Smith said: "The latest UK GDP data confirms what we already knew - that the economy was on fire through the second quarter.

"Admittedly, a large part of the 4.8% quarterly growth is a simple function of the re-openings. And indeed, if we look at June data specifically, 0.45% of the 1% monthly growth came from health, which is linked to people visiting their doctor more.

"Still, quirks aside, we saw a clear increase in optimism among both consumers and businesses through the spring, and that will undoubtedly have helped drive a faster recovery in activity."

In equity markets, Rio Tinto, Barclays, Shell, Next, BP, Evraz, Fresnillo, Jupiter Fund Management, Hiscox, NatWest, Pearson and Standard Chartered were among the stocks trading without entitlement to the dividend. Rio was particularly weak as it went ex-interim and special dividend.

On the upside, Aviva rallied after saying it would return at least £4bn to shareholders over the next year as the insurer reported a 17% increase in adjusted interim profit.

Cineworld jumped to the top of the FTSE 250 after it posted an interim operating loss of $208.9m as the Covid pandemic forced the closure of cinemas in the opening months of the year, but said trading since reopening had been "encouraging".

Holiday company TUI also gained after it reported a sharp rise in third-quarter revenue but said sales were down almost 80% for the first nine months of 2021.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,209.43 -0.15%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,782.87 0.11%
techMARK (TASX) 4,748.16 0.27%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Aviva (AV.) 424.90p 4.45%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,509.50p 1.96%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,510.50p 1.79%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,688.00p 1.57%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 121.70p 1.43%
BT Group (BT.A) 178.95p 1.19%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 8,266.00p 1.05%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,746.00p 1.03%
Admiral Group (ADM) 3,620.00p 1.00%
Tesco (TSCO) 241.10p 0.92%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,654.00p -7.33%
Evraz (EVR) 601.80p -6.55%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 7,966.00p -1.63%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 275.40p -1.54%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 15,530.00p -1.49%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,387.50p -1.30%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,462.40p -1.28%
Entain (ENT) 1,943.00p -1.14%
DCC (CDI) (DCC) 6,158.00p -1.03%
Pearson (PSON) 791.20p -1.03%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Cineworld Group (CINE) 64.22p 4.83%
Trustpilot Group (TRST) 387.80p 2.48%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 47.92p 2.46%
Harbour Energy (HBR) 370.80p 2.37%
Capita (CPI) 48.50p 2.30%
Savills (SVS) 1,260.00p 2.27%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 181.80p 2.25%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 258.00p 2.18%
IntegraFin Holding (IHP) 567.50p 2.16%
Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 234.00p 1.96%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Ferrexpo (FXPO) 418.20p -4.78%
Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 267.20p -3.19%
Just Group (JUST) 102.80p -3.02%
Trainline (TRN) 361.00p -2.75%
Genesis Emerging Markets Fund Ltd Ptg NPV (GSS) 870.00p -2.25%
Vivo Energy (VVO) 103.80p -1.89%
Hill & Smith Holdings (HILS) 1,778.00p -1.88%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 361.50p -1.63%
Syncona Limited NPV (SYNC) 214.50p -1.61%
Hammerson (HMSO) 36.26p -1.60%