Gloom pushes London market into the red

London’s blue chip share index ended yesterday in the red after a raft of gloomy updates from the likes of Pearson.

The education giant was the biggest faller on the top tier, with shares hitting 11-year lows after its finance chief quit, and as it warned profits will fall once again this year.

Optimism over the US-China trade deal quickly faded following the slew of corporate disappointments, sending the FTSE 100 Index down 32.99 points to close at 7,609.81.

With the top flight heavily made up of international mining and oil stocks, which trade in US dollars, gains in the pound often means falls for the FTSE 100.

Sterling lifted 0.2% to 1.31 US dollars and 0.4% to 1.18 euros.

While the UK market came under pressure, it was a different picture on the other side of the Atlantic as the Dow Jones Industrial Average touched above 29,200 for the first time in its history.

Celebrations on Wall Street continued over the US-China phase one trade agreement, with sentiment also boosted by strong US retail sales figures.

But across Europe, the Cac 40 in France and Germany’s Dax finished close to their opening mark.

FTSE 250-listed recruitment firm Hays was a big faller as it alerted over profits after saying strikes in France, political uncertainty in the UK, a slowing German economy and the Australian bushfires had taken their toll.

The firm saw shares drop 3% or 5.9p to 166.7p.

The biggest risers were NMC Health up 96p to 1,441.5p, Associated British Foods ahead 106p to 2,661p, Berkeley Group 148p higher at 4,993p.