FTSE outperforms despite Brexit

BRITISH blue chips outperformed their European peers on Monday as fears about the terms of Brexit sank the pound, giving an accounting boost to stocks with foreign revenues in dollars.

The FTSE 100 lost 0.74pc while Germany’s DAX fell 1.77pc, Paris’s CAC 40 0.93pc and Milan 1.05pc.

European bourses and Wall Street fell heavily due to worries about the technology sector and weak forecasts from suppliers of Apple.

The domestically-focused mid-cap index FTSE MID 250, which is widely seen as a proxy for whether leaving the European Union will actually hurt the British economy, was down 1.54pc. The Iseq index closed down 0.74pc at 6,126.62.

“Anything Brexit related”, with exposure to the domestic UK market has been hit today due to the weak pound, said Ken Odeluga, market analyst at CityIndex.

The pound was close to one percent lower against the dollar after UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit strategy came under attack from all sides, putting in doubt her ability to avoid a disruptive EU departure without any deal.

British American Tobacco shares posted the worst performance of the index, falling as much as 10.6pc to their lowest since February 2014 after a Wall Street Journal report that the US Food and Drug Administration plans to pursue a ban on menthol cigarettes.

Imperial Brands shares were down 2.1pc as traders said BAT has the greatest exposure to menthol cigarettes.