FTSE dragged as miners lead falling stocks

Market report Emma Newlands

Sterling was still suffering under the weight of political uncertainty despite an intensive effort from Prime Minister Theresa May to reboot Brexit talks.

The pound was 0.2 per cent lower versus the US dollar at $1.34, but had picked up from the lows seen earlier in the session after Brexit secretary David Davis insisted Northern Ireland would not be “left behind” in the single market and customs union after Brexit.

The UK currency was enjoying a stronger session against the euro, up 0.2 per cent at €1.13, while the FTSE 100 Index closed down 11.47 points to 7,327.5. Connor Campbell, Spreadex financial analyst, said: “David Davis’s suggestion that the post-brexit ‘regulatory alignment’ sought for Northern Ireland and the EU would apply to the UK as a whole seems to have lifted the pound from its lows [in the session].”

In UK stocks, British supermarkets were among the biggest risers following a broker upgrade from Goldman Sachs. Shares in Morrisons climbed 4.8p to 218.8p, for example.

However, this boost to the London market was cancelled out after the mining giants fell on a drop in the copper price. Anglo-american was the biggest faller, dropping 34p to 1,351p.

Plumbing supplier Ferguson was also down after a challenging UK market dragged on its first quarter. Shares dropped 60p to 5,420p.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 Index included Tesco up 5.9p to 201p, Sainsbury’s up 6.4p to 239.3p and Whitbread up 99p to 3,710p. The biggest fallers included Glencore down 7.8p to 334p, St James’s Place down 25p to 1,175p and Rio Tinto down 71.5p to 3,468.5p. The cloud computing and internet hosting firm posted solid half-year numbers and declared a maiden interim dividend of 2.25p per share. The Glasgow biomaterials firm widened its pre-tax interim loss but one analyst said it has “strong customer and product pipelines”.