25th Feb 2025 08:58
(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened mixed on Tuesday, ahead of US consumer confidence data and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's trip to the US later in the week.
This follows US President Donald Trump's claim that tariffs of up to 25% on Canadian and Mexican imports are moving forward as planned, following last month's last-minute pause which ends next Tuesday.
"UK markets have kicked off on a downbeat note, with the FTSE 100 0.3% lower as investors digest a mix of global trade tensions and domestic economic signals," said Hargreaves Lansdown's Matt Britzman. "The lower opening echoes performance in European markets, and a retreat in US and Asian stocks overnight, reflecting unease over looming US tariff policies and their potential ripple effects on global growth and inflation."
The FTSE 100 index opened up 7.27 points, 0.1%, at 8,666.25. The FTSE 250 was down 2.97 points at 20,481.42, and the AIM All-Share was up 0.10 points at 710.98.
The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.1% at 867.09, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.1% at 17,835.46, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 0.4% at 15,869.84.
Smith & Nephew led the FTSE 100, up 8.4%.
The Watford, England-based medical technology company's board has recommended a final dividend of 23.1 US cents for 2024, bringing the year's total to 37.5 cents.
Also, revenue increased 4.7% to USD5.81 billion in 2024 from USD5.55 billion in 2023, while pretax profit surged to USD498 million from USD290 million, and earnings per share rose 56% to 47.2 cents from 30.2 cents.
Rio Tinto was the biggest loser, down 2.1%.
The mining titan faces criticism after activist investor Palliser Capital on Monday said it is "deeply disappointed" by the company's decision to reject a motion to review its dual listing.
In a letter to the board of the Anglo-Australian miner, Palliser said in light of the "irrefutable rationale" for unification the resolution was "necessary" to ensure a proper examination of the "anomalous and illogical decision to retain the status quo."
Lion Finance led the FTSE 250, jumping 9.0%.
The Tbilisi, Georgia-based lender declared a GEL5.62 per share final dividend for 2024. The total payout was GEL9.00 per share, up 13% on-year. Pretax profit before items rose to GEL2.18 billion, around GBP620.3 million, in 2024 from GEL1.63 billion in 2023, and net interest income increased to GEL2.36 billion from GEL1.62 billion.
CMC Markets led the laggers, down 6.4%.
The London-based online trading platform announced that Chief Financial Officer Albert Soleiman has stepped down with immediate effect, although he "will remain with the firm for a period of time to support an orderly handover".
On AIM, Staffline surged up 18%.
The Nottingham, England-based recruitment and training company has launched a GBP7.5 million buyback to return proceeds from its GBP12.0 million sale of PeoplePlus Group.
In other UK news, the energy bills of millions of households in England, Scotland and Wales are to rise by 6.4% from April 1 when Ofgem increases its price cap for a third consecutive quarter.
The regulator said the increase, which will raise the average bill for households on a standard variable tariff from the current GBP1,738 a year to GBP1,849, followed a recent spike in wholesale prices. The rise will equate to GBP111 for an average household per year, or around GBP9.25 a month.
This is 9.4% or GBP159 higher than this time last year but GBP531 or 22% lower than at the height of the energy crisis at the start of 2023.
In European equities on Tuesday, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.2%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was down 0.1%.
German gross domestic product fell by 0.2% quarterly on a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis, data published by the Federal Statistical Office showed. This followed growth of 0.1% in the third quarter from the second.
On-year and price-adjusted, the German economy declined by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, after 0.1% growth in the third quarter.
Meanwhile Swissquote's Ipek Ozkardeskaya said: "The European stocks started the week near flat, while German companies gave back early gains, boosted by the idea – hope – that the new German government will relax spending rules and announce a special defence spending budget that could go up to EUR200 billion to take its own security in its own hands for the first time since the WWII.
"The military spending in Europe is becoming a major investment theme – unfortunately – and should also be complemented with massive spending in technology and industry."
The pound was quoted at USD1.2620 early on Tuesday in London, lower compared to USD1.2634 at the equities close on Monday. The euro stood lower at USD1.0466, against USD1.0471. Against the yen, the dollar was trading lower at JPY149.59 compared to JPY149.64.
In Asia on Tuesday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was down 1.4%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.8%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 1.4%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 0.7%.
In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.1%, the S&P 500 down 0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite down 1.2%.
Gold was quoted lower at USD2,940.36 an ounce against USD2,942.87 late Monday.
"The worsening geopolitical and trade outlook boost appetite for safer pockets of the market, said Ozkardeskaya. "The US 10-year yield pushed below the 4.40% mark, gold advanced to a fresh record high while the US dollar rebounded from the lowest levels since December...In the actual geopolitical setup, gold is certainly a better hedge than the US dollar and Treasuries."
Brent oil was quoted higher at USD75.01 a barrel early in London on Tuesday from USD74.85 late Monday.
Ozkardeskaya commented: "Speaking of geopolitics, US crude extends rebound after approaching the critical USD70pb support last Friday on news that Trump government imposed new sanctions on oil brokers and ships that were linked to illicit Iranian crude.
"But the worsening global economic outlook on rising trade tensions will likely keep the upside limited."
Still to come on Tuesday's economic calendar, there are various US releases including consumer confidence, the Redbook index and money supply.
Also, Ireland's average weekly earnings will be published at 1100 GMT.
By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter
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