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(Alliance News) - Renewed virus worries weighed down global markets on Friday, resulting in a subdued end to the month for stocks in London.
Intertek and British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines brought up the rear of the FTSE 100 index, while Babcock International and ConvaTec tumbled in the mid-cap FTSE 250.
The UK flagship index closed down 46.12 points, or 0.7%, at 7,032.30. For the week overall, the FTSE 100 rose 0.1% and for the month of July, clocked a loss of 0.1%.
The FTSE 250 ended down 101.63 points, or 0.4%, at 22,948.83 on Friday, and finished the week-to-date 0.3% higher. The AIM All-Share closed up 3.84 points, or 0.3%, at 1,251.11 - and ended the week overall with a gain of 1.5%.
The Cboe UK 100 ended down 0.6% at 700.71, the Cboe UK 250 closed down 0.4% at 20738.08, and the Cboe Small Companies ended down 0.4% at 15237.68.
In European equities on Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended down 0.3% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended down 0.6%.
"It's been a disappointing end to the week, and the month for markets in Europe at the end of a week and a month that has seen the FTSE 250 hit a new record high, and yet we've seen very little way of progress in the FTSE 100," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.
Markets have lacked "clear direction" this week, he added.
"We've seen moves in both directions, but they've lacked any sort of conviction, with the overriding concern being one of concern about whether the second half of the year will be able to match up to some of the decent numbers we've seen from various company updates this week," the CMC analyst said.
Partially behind Friday's leg lower were renewed virus concerns, as hundreds of thousands of people in China were placed in coronavirus lockdown as the country battles its worst outbreak in months.
In China, a cluster of infections in Nanjing city linked to airport workers who cleaned a plane from Russia earlier this month had reached the capital Beijing and five provinces by Friday.
Elsewhere, Japan on Friday extended a virus state of emergency in the capital a week into the Olympics, with the city reporting a record number of new cases the day before. The US ramped up efforts to get people vaccinated in the face of a Delta variant-fuelled surge.
London-listed travel and leisure stocks ended lower on Friday, with cinema chain operator Cineworld falling 4.9% and Anglo-German tour firm Tui falling 3.7%.
Even a slimmed-down loss was unable to stave off a share price decline at British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines, which fell 7.5%.
FTSE 100 constituent IAG - which owns British Airways and Aer Lingus as well as Spanish carriers Iberia and Vueling - posted a pretax loss which narrowed in the first half to EUR2.34 billion from EUR4.22 billion a year prior. Looking ahead, IAG said it had strong liquidity of EUR10.2 billion at the end of the second quarter but did not provide profit guidance for 2021 due to uncertainty over the timing of government travel restrictions lifting and the continued impact of Covid-19.
The worst blue-chip performer in London on Friday was Intertek, tumbling 8.0% despite the quality assurance firm booking interim pretax profit growth of 30%, climbing to GBP169.1 million from GBP130.8 million last year. However, revenue slipped 1.0% to GBP1.32 billion in the six months ended June 30 from GBP1.33 billion a year earlier.
Topping the index was Rightmove, which rose 3.2% as the online property portal's interim profit shot up to GBP114.7 million from GBP61.6 million a year before.
"While the pandemic is not yet over and its devastating impacts continue to be felt, Rightmove has emerged stronger from 2020, with our investments bearing fruit with both home-hunters and customers," the company said in a statement.
Dragging down the FTSE 250 index were Babcock International and ConvaTec, tumbling 16% and 8.1% respectively.
Defence firm Babcock reports a widened pretax loss of GBP1.72 billion for the financial year ended March 31, from just GBP88.9 million a year ago. Disposals, lost business and Covid-19 had a significant impact, Babcock said.
ConvaTec fell even as pretax profit for the first half of 2021 rose 38% year-on-year to USD112.1 million. The Reading, England-based medical products and technologies company posted revenue of USD1.01 billion, up 11% from USD908 million.
However, during the second half ConvaTec expects higher raw material prices and freight costs coupled with increases in operational expenditures given planned transformation investments into research & development and selling and distribution.
Over in New York, Amazon's 7.2% share slump dominated headlines.
For the three months to the end of June, total net sales at the e-commerce titan surged 27% to USD113.08 billion from USD88.91 billion a year ago. However, the market had been looking for a sales figure just above USD115 billion.
Net income for the period jumped 48% to USD7.78 billion from USD5.24 billion, and diluted earnings per share advanced 47% to USD15.12 from USD10.30.
Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at IG, commented: "With traders selling Amazon stock despite a third consecutive USD100 billion quarter, markets are clearly setting a high bar for these pandemic outperformers. Nonetheless, despite the high expectations for tech stocks, we have seen 94% of the S&P 500 tech earnings outperform on earnings thus far."
Stocks in New York were in the red at the London equities close, with the Dow Jones down 0.3%, the S&P 500 index down 0.5%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite down 0.8%.
The dollar advanced amid Friday's risk-off mood.
The pound was quoted at USD1.3898 at the London equities close Friday, down compared to USD1.3967 at the close on Thursday. Against the yen, the dollar rose to JPY109.74 compared to JPY109.54 late Thursday.
The euro stood at USD1.1858 at the European equities close Friday, dipping from USD1.1885 at the same time on Thursday even as a raft of eurozone data on Friday painted an improved picture of the single currency area's economy.
According to Eurostat, eurozone GDP rose 2.0% quarter-on-quarter during the three months to June. It topped market expectations of 1.5% growth, according to FXStreet-cited consensus, and it follows a 0.3% decline in the first quarter.
The eurozone's unemployment rate ticked down to 7.7% in June, from 8.0% in May. A smaller drop to 7.9% was expected, so the figure also beat expectations.
Brent oil was quoted at USD76.29 a barrel at the London equities close Friday, up from USD75.51 late Thursday. Gold was quoted at USD1,821.81 an ounce at the London close, easing from USD1,829.48 at the close on Thursday.
The UK corporate calendar for Monday has half-year results from lender HSBC and engineering firm Senior.
On the economics side, there are manufacturing PMIs from Japan, China, Germany, the eurozone and the UK at 0130 BST, 0245 BST, 0855 BST, 0900 BST and 0930 BST respectively. A US Markit PMI is due at 1445 BST and the ISM's report at 1500 BST. Outside of PMIs, German retail sales are at 0700 BST.
By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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