FTSE falters, narrowing weekly gain

Carillion sees bounce • AstraZeneca slide continues

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s major share index faltered on Friday, cutting its weekly gain from a global rally after US Fed officials hinted monetary policy tightening will go ahead at a slower pace.

The FTSE 100 fell 0.5%, underperforming mid-caps and taking weekly gains to a narrow 0.2%.

The more defensives-heavy index suffers when expectations of monetary policy tightening dampen. European stocks on the other hand enjoyed their best week in more than two months.

Defensive housebuilding stocks such as Barratt Development and Persimmon were among the top blue-chip fallers.

Drugmaker AstraZeneca continued Thursday’s slide, down 1.6% due to uncertainty around reports that CEO Pascal Soriot was preparing to leave the company.

As spokespeople declined to comment on the report, the combined two-day share drop wiped more than £3 billion off Astra’s market value.

Firmer metals prices underpinned gains on mining stocks, with Anglo American and Fresnillo top of the blue-chips.

Anglo American, with considerable South Africa exposure, also benefited from the country suspending implementation of a new mining law which analysts had said could hurt firms.

Royal Mail shares fell 2.4% after it replaced its pension plan, giving employees a choice between defined benefit or contribution pension scheme after opposition from trade unions.

Among mid-caps, Carillion saw a small relief bounce from heavy losses last week, rising 1.3% after the crisis-hit construction and support services contractor hired HSBC as joint financial adviser and corporate broker, amid speculation it is preparing a rights issue.

Despite the slight relief, the firm was left with 70% less market value than at the start of the week. “A lot of our clients cut their positions on the first day and we haven’t seen further flows in the stock after that,” said a trader.

Property firm Derwent London was among top European gainers, up 3.4% after Exane BNP Paribas raised the stock to an “outperform” rating, citing the firm’s “defensive” rents and strong pipeline. It expressed optimism about the prospects for a sector seen as particularly vulnerable to Brexit.

“Values in the London office market have barely moved post-Brexit thanks to abundant investment market liquidity [particularly from Asia] and resilient take-up,” its analysts said in a note, adding that firms have recycled capital, deleveraged and payed special dividends.

Exane analysts forecast an average 8% decline in London office rents by 2019 – “a gradual weakening rather than a sharp correction”, as they put it.

Emerging markets-focused asset manager Ashmore fell after reporting a 5% rise in its fourth-quarter assets, boosted by new client cash. Despite the results being in line with forecasts, the shares slid 2.2% to the bottom of the mid-caps.

“This was Ashmore’s second consecutive quarter of inflows, marking the first time since 2013,” UBS analysts said in a note.

“That said, due to the increase in the GBP/USD rate during the quarter, the growth of assets under management measured in sterling was a more moderate 1.1% quarter-on-quarter.”