UPDATE 1-Britain's FTSE gives up gains as trade war worries irk Wall Street

  • Reuters
  • Stock Market News
UPDATE 1-Britain's FTSE gives up gains as trade war worries irk Wall Street
Credit: © Reuters.

* FTSE 100 down 0.1 pct

* Prudential jumps after insurer announces demerger

* Morrison's shares reverse course after results (Adds comments, context)

By Kit Rees and Julien Ponthus

LONDON, March 14 (Reuters) - British shares gave up early gains and finished in negative territory on Wednesday as points gained by Prudential and mining stocks were overturned by simmering fears of a global trade war that pushed Wall Street into the red.

The blue chip FTSE 100 .FTSE index closed down 0.09 percent at 7,132.69 points, slightly above the pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX , down 0.15 percent while the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was losing about 1 percent at the same time.

"The positive mood in Europe has waned after U.S. markets turned lower," David Madden from CMC Markets said.

The showdown between Britain and the Kremlin about how a Soviet-era nerve toxin was used to attack a Russian ex-spy had little impact on British shares. Prudential PRU.L was the top gainer, its shares rising 5.1 percent after it said it would demerge its UK and Europe retirement and asset management business from its international insurance business. said it planned to demerge M&G Prudential into a separate company with a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange.

"A demerger driven by geography is one which makes commercial and strategic sense," Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said.

Mining stocks provided a big boost to the FTSE, thanks to some solid industrial production data from China, which pushed metals prices higher given that China is the biggest consumer of metals in the world. MET/L

Shares in Glencore GLEN.L were up 1.8 percent, Anglo American AAL.L added 3.3 percent and Antofagasta ANTO.L rose 3.4 percent.

Results were also in focus. Despite an early rise, shares in Morrison's MRW.L gave up gains and posted the worst performance of the index, down 4.8 percent after the supermarket gave a full-year update amid a tough environment for food retailers due to competition in pricing and online. Morrison's beat forecasts and announced a special dividend, analysts voiced concerns over the sustainability of the grocer's growth, while others were disappointed that the dividend was a one-off.

"The market has not been buying into the group's recent run of form," Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital, said.

"There is a sense that this kind of growth will be difficult to maintain, but this has been the argument for some time and has continually been wrong," Wilson added.

Outside of the blue chips, shares in funeral services provider Dignity DTY.L surged more than 15 percent, putting the stock on track for its biggest one-day gain since listing in 2004 after reporting full-year results.

Dignity's shares are still down more than 45 percent this year on the back of concerns around a price war.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ UK Grocers

http://reut.rs/2GpWbPu

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

Add Chart to Comment

Comment Guidelines

We encourage you to use comments to engage with users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind: 

  • Enrich the conversation
  • Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
  • Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically.
  •  Use standard writing style. Include punctuation and upper and lower cases.
  • NOTE: Spam and/or promotional messages and links within a comment will be removed
  • Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user.
  • Don’t Monopolize the Conversation. We appreciate passion and conviction, but we also believe strongly in giving everyone a chance to air their thoughts. Therefore, in addition to civil interaction, we expect commenters to offer their opinions succinctly and thoughtfully, but not so repeatedly that others are annoyed or offended. If we receive complaints about individuals who take over a thread or forum, we reserve the right to ban them from the site, without recourse.
  • Only English comments will be allowed.

Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.

Drop an image here or Supported formats: *.jpg, *.png, *.gif up to 5mb

Error: File type not supported

Drop an image here or

100
Please try another search