FTSE joins global drop as housebuilders tumble

GLOBAL stock markets registered another tough day yesterday as housebuilders in London notched up falls. The FTSE 100 closed down 35.89 points or 0.5%, ending the day at 7,551.81.

It came as Persimmon, Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey all saw their shares drop significantly.

Housebuilders have been in the news all week as one by one they signed up to the Government’s fire safety pledge set up after the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Many have also revealed extra costs that they expect to see. Bellway, Countryside and Vistry became the latest to book in the costs and sign up to the pledge on Thursday.

Elsewhere, Shell’s shares suffered after it revealed an up to 5 billion dollar (£3.8 billion) hit from the plan to withdraw from Russia.

“The day has been a gloomy one for the FTSE 100. Nonetheless, it is still doing much better than its European rivals since the March low; while the FTSE 100 has nearly returned to its February highs, thanks to the strong performance of oil, mining and banks, the Dax and others continue to struggle, remaining well below the highs from earlier in the year, as their close economic links to Russia make investors nervous,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG.

Germany’s Dax closed down 0.5%, the Paris-based Cac 40 dropped 0.6%.

In New York, the S&P 500 was trading down 0.6%, while its fellow Wall Street index the Dow Jones was down 0.8% by the time markets were closing in Europe.

On currency markets the pound dropped 0.05% to buy 1.3058 dollars and rose 0.06% to 1.1981 euros.

The price of Brent crude oil dipped 1.7%, hitting 99.35 dollars per barrel.

In company news, both Tesco and BT announced pay rises for their staff, 5.8% for the supermarket and around 8% for some BT workers.

Ladbrokes and Coral owner Entain said it had seen a 31% rise in net gaming revenue in the last three months compared to the same period a year ago. The bookmaker’s high street sites are doing better than they had been as pandemic restrictions were relaxed. But investors were unimpressed and shares dipped 2.6%, perhaps due to the fall in online revenue. The company’s online performance was strong during lockdown but fell 8% in the last quarter.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Airtel Africa, up 3.5p to 142.3p, Ocado, up 25.5p to 1,229.5p, Sainsbury’s, up 4.8p to 246p, AstraZeneca, up 206p to 10,668p, and AB Foods, up 26p to 336.6p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Aviva, down 22p to 422.4p, Barratt Developments, down 23p to 507.8p, Entain, down 67p to 1,555p, Abrdn, down 8p to 203p, and Persimmon, down 66p to 2,171p.