Headline shares were firmly lower in early deals, following a subdued performance on Wall Street overnight, with miners and bankers pulling the market down, overriding positive earnings news. At 8:35am, the FTSE100 was down 29.59 points at 5,724.26 with the FTSE250 off 69.8 points at 10,620.3 and the FTSE Smallcaps 5.96 points lower at 2,988.06. In the US last night, the Dow added a point at 11,205, the Nasdaq Composite fell 7 points at 2,523 and the S&P500 lost 5 points at 1,212. In Asia today, the Nikkei was up 46.87 points at 11,212.66, while the Hang Seng was recently off 325.23 points at 21,261.83.
LONDON MARKETS
A flurry of largely positive blue chip earnings reports could not counteract general poor sentiment in the financial and commodities sectors this morning. Miners retreated from recent gains, with Xstrata Plc (LON:XTA) the worst of the bunch, down 27p at 1,167p. Kazakhmys (LON:KAZ) stumbled 29p at 1,451p, Vedanta Resources (LON:VED) lost 47p at 2,748p and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) dropped 64.5p at 3,739.5p. Investors in BP (LON:BP.) tucked away some profits in the wake of news the oil giant made a Q1 replacement cost profit of $5.598bn compared with $2.387bn a year ago, an increase of 135%. BP (LON:BP.) shares fell 7.8p at 619p.
Conversely, Shell ticked up 14p at 1,927p, ahead of interim results tomorrow. Banking shares were under pressure, with only £LLOYs making progress, up 0.7p at 70.94p after announcing it returned to profit in the first quarter of the year as impairments slowed. Royal Bank Of Scotland Group Plc (LON:RBS) was 0.6p lower at 57.45p, while Barclays (LON:BARC) lost 3.15p at 367.75p.
A similar pattern emerged amongst insurers, with Prudential (LON:PRU) rising 9p at 555p while its rivals weakened. Aviva (LON:AV.) fell 4.3p at 368.3p and Legal & General Group (LON:LGEN) lost a penny at 88.5p. Commercial property was out of favour, with Liberty Plc (LON:LBE) International leading the blue chip REITs lower, off 11.2p at 494.8p. Land Securities Group Plc (LON:LAND) slid 11p lower at 655p and British Land eased 7.7p at 477.3p. Chipmaker ARM Holdings was the biggest casualty early on, down 6.4p at 252.2p, with profit-takers moving in on news of record royalty revenues and profits in the first quarter.
On the upside with blue chips, cigarette maker Imperial Tobacco…
