(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London were lower at midday Thursday, with markets remaining "jittery" after the recent global sell-off.
The FTSE 100 index was down 80.43 points, 1.0%, at 8,086.45. The FTSE 250 was down 257.43 points, 1.3%, at 20,318.60, and the AIM All-Share was down 5.58 points, 0.7%, at 761.74.
The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.9% at 807.71, the Cboe UK 250 was down 1.3% at 17,811.02, and the Cboe Small Companies was down 0.2% at 16,737.93.
In European equities on Thursday, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 1.0%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was down 0.6%.
"The FTSE 100 gave back a big portion of the gains chalked up on Wednesday as global markets remain jittery after the recent sell-off," said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
"There will be concern that a positive start to trading on Wall Street on Wednesday faded fast with all eyes now turning to today's session and whether last night was just driven by a few big earnings disappointments or represents the start of a new downtrend."
Stocks in New York were called to open mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was called down 0.2% and the S&P 500 index down 0.1%, whilst the Nasdaq Composite was called up 0.1%.
Trading will likely remain cautious ahead of the US jobless claims data, as any negative news could hint at a recession in the US. The data will be released at 1330 BST.
Analysts at Lloyds said that "in a quiet week for economic data the US weekly Initial Jobless Claims series will be even more in the spotlight than usual."
The pound was quoted at USD1.2665 at midday on Thursday in London, lower compared to USD1.2723 at the equities close on Wednesday. The euro stood at USD1.0923, lower against USD1.0936. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY146.06, down compared to JPY147.40.
In the UK, there was a slew of earnings for investors to digest over the morning.
The FTSE 100's Beazley rose 12%.
Beazley is a London-based specialist insurance underwriter, managing six Lloyd's of London syndicates. It said pretax profit nearly doubled to USD728.9 million in the six months that ended June 30 from USD336.4 million a year before.
Insurance written premiums rose by 6.9% to USD3.12 billion from USD2.92 billion a year before, and Beazley's combined ratio improved to 77% from 84%. Any combined ratio below 100% means a provide on underwriting, so the lower the better.
"Expertise in underwriting and active risk selection are key drivers of this strong result, even as the rating environment is moderating," commented Chief Executive Officer Adrian Cox.
Entain jumped 7.5%.
The sports betting and iGaming operator reported that revenue in the first half of the year rose to GBP2.52 billion, up 6.0% from GBP2.38 billion a year ago. It noted that the figure is up 8% at constant currency. Its pretax loss narrowed to GBP27.6 million from GBP448.1 million.
Entain declared a 9.3p interim dividend, up 4.5% from 8.9p a year ago.
Looking ahead, Entain upgraded its annual guidance. It now expects 2024 online net gaming revenue growth on a proforma basis to be a low single-digit percentage positive, improved from previous guidance that this would be negative by a low single-digit percentage.
The company expects to deliver earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the range of GBP1.04 billion to GBP1.09 billion, at least 3.2% higher than GBP1.01 billion in 2023. Underlying Ebitda in the first half of 2024 was GBP523.8 million, up 4.9% from GBP499.4 million in 2023.
Persimmon edged up 2.8%.
The York, England-based housebuilder said in the first half that ended June 30, pretax profit fell 3.1% to GBP146.3 million from GBP151.0 million the previous year.
Revenue increased 11% to GBP1.32 billion from GBP1.19 billion, while cost of sales also rose 11% to GBP1.06 billion from GBP954.5 million.
Persimmon maintained an interim dividend of 20 pence per share.
Spirax lost 8.0%, after reporting a performance "slightly below" expectations in the first half.
The Cheltenham, England-based thermal energy and fluid technology firm said pretax profit rose 9.5% to GBP124.8 million in the first half that ended June 30 from GBP114.0 million in the previous year.
Revenue fell 2.8% to GBP827.0 million from GBP850.8 million, while operating costs declined 5.4% to GBP679.8 million from GBP718.6 million.
Spirax raised its interim dividend by 3.3% to 47.5 pence per share from 46.0p.
Chief Executive Officer Nimesh Patel: "Against the backdrop of a weak macroeconomic environment in some of our key markets and a strong currency headwind, first half results were slightly below our expectations."
In the FTSE 250, TI Fluid rose 11%.
The Oxford, England-based designer and manufacturer of thermal management and fluid handling systems reported that revenue in the first half of 2024 fell by 2.8% to EUR1.72 billion from EUR1.77 billion a year earlier.
Pretax profit jumped to EUR61.2 million from EUR58.9 million.
TI Fluid upped its dividend by 4.3% to 2.40 cents from 2.30 cents.
On London's AIM, GCM Resources jumped 15%.
The mining company said that the staff, Dhaka office and Phulbari facilities of its wholly owned subsidiary, Asia Energy Corp (Bangladesh), remain safe following the past two weeks of country-wide protests in Bangladesh and the subsequent resignation of their prime minister on Monday.
"GCM's chief operating officer is in Bangladesh and reports that staff are in good spirits and had taken precautions to minimise personal risk and pr otect company assets," it added.
Brent oil was quoted at USD77.83 a barrel at midday in London on Thursday, down from USD78.64 late Wednesday.
Gold was quoted at USD2,399.10 an ounce, slightly lower against USD2,399.30.
By Sophie Rose, Alliance News senior reporter
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