9th Sep 2013 16:36
LONDON (Alliance News) - The UK's main equities indices closed mixed Monday, with the small caps again outperforming their larger peers, as markets wait to find out whether the US will opt for a military strike against Syria.
The oil stocks-heavy FTSE 100 closed down 0.3% at 6,530.74, while the FTSE 250 closed up 0.3% at 15,092.86 and the AIM All-Share closed up 0.4% at 768.18.
The FTSE 100 had opened the day slightly higher but quickly turned negative and spent the rest of the day trading in a fairly tight range of about 10 points around 6,220 in a day without much in the way of new economic data to drive markets.
Oil and gas producers were the biggest losers of the day, the FTSE 350 sector down 1.4%. The falls were led by BG Group who were by far the biggest blue-chip mover, closing down more than 5% at 1,217 pence after cutting its production forecasts for 2014 due to Egypt's ongoing troubles and the low gas prices in the US.
US Secretary of State John Kerry was visiting London Tuesday and argued for a "very limited, very targeted, very short-term effort that degrades President Assad's capacity to deliver chemical weapons without assuming responsibility for Syria's civil war."
Obama is expected to reiterate the same sentiment during his own media campaign as he addresses the American Public on television from the White House on Tuesday evening, while Congress is expected to vote on the matter later this week.
Meanwhile, Russia believes enough evidence exists to suggest that Syrian rebels are to blame for last month's chemical weapons attack outside Damascus, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. "In my view there is ample evidence," Lavrov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency, saying the internet is awash with footage in which rebels claim that they had carried out the attack.
With a lack of firm decisions on Syria, commodity prices weakened. By the close of the European equity markets, the price of a barrel of Brent Oil had fallen more than 1.5% to about USD113.9 a barrel while gold was down slightly at about USD1,386 an ounce.
In the forex markets, the lack of risk events meant the pound rose to a high of 1.5733 against the dollar, very close to the peak in mid-June of USD1.5751.
Sterling was helped by a speech from George Osborne Monday morning as the Chancellor capitalised on a strong run of UK economic readings to pronounce that his policies are working and the UK is "turning a corner" in terms of economic recovery. Osborne also attempted to damp fears of a housing bubble-fuelled recovery, saying that 95% loan-to-value mortgages are "not weapons of mass financial destruction".
A slightly busier day in the corporate calendar Tuesday, including a trading statement from Whitbread. More data from Asia overnight may give some direction to UK stocks. The Japanese central bank releases minutes from its monetary policy meeting, while Industrial production, retail sales and urban investment statistics are released from China.
By Jon Darby; [email protected]; @jondarby100
Copyright 2013 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
BG..L