Blue-chips hit by Us-north Korea tension

Market report Emma Newlands

Mounting tensions between the United States and North Korea battered blue-chip stocks, knocking the London market’s attempts of securing a record high.

The FTSE 100 Index closed down 44.67 points at 7,498.06 after US president Donald Trump told North Korea he would unleash “fire and fury like the world has never seen” following suggestions the communist state can now strike America with a nuclear missile.

Pyongyang responded by saying it was studying plans for an attack on Guam, a US territory and home to Andersen US Air Force Base.

The heightened rhetoric dragged London’s top flight back from 7,542.73 in the previous session, when it came within a whisker of reaching its all-time closing high.

Precious metals miners were among a smattering of UK stocks enjoying a stronger session as investors set course for safe havens. The price of gold rose 1 per cent to $1,274.39 per ounce, with Fresnillo up 72p to 1,544p, for example.

On the currency markets, the pound was marginally higher against the US dollar at $1.30 and up 0.1 per cent versus the euro at €1.11.

In UK stocks, Worldpay Group was among the biggest risers, up 4.9p to 388.5p, after agreeing a £9.3 billion merger deal with US rival Vantiv in a tie-up that will create a £22.2bn global payments processing giant.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 Index included Randgold Resources, up 200p to 7,380p, and BAE Systems, up 7p to 582.5p.

The biggest fallers included Standard Chartered, down 20.9p to 783.1p, and Prudential, down 44p to 1,841.5p. Investors toasted a 23 per cent rise in first-half pretax profits at the London-listed vodka-maker as its turnaround efforts begin to yield results. In spite of the global security giant posting rising half-year sales and profits, its share price fall was put down to slowing secondquarter growth.