London midday: Stocks stay down as investors eye rate decisions

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were still lower by midday on Monday as investors eyed a series of key central bank rate announcements this week. The FTSE 100 was down 0.2% at 7,750.61.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "The FTSE 100 started Monday firmly on the back foot as investors started to display a bit of nervousness ahead of two big central bank announcements.

"For the most part 2023 has been smooth sailing for stocks but two icebergs lurk in the waters this week in the form of the Federal Reserve and Bank of England interest rate decisions.

"How far might they dial back rate hikes and the hints they might drop about the future trajectory of their policy decisions are the two things which will be keeping investors up at night."

In equity markets, Legal & General was among the worst performers on the FTSE 100 after it said that Sir Nigel Wilson is planning to retire after more than a decade as chief executive.

Gambling group 888 tumbled as it announced the departure of its chief executive, and said it was suspending some VIP accounts in the Middle East pending the outcome of an internal compliance investigation. Just weeks after announcing that chief financial officer Yariv Dafna had "mutually agreed" to step down from the business, 888 announced that CEO Itai Pazner is stepping down with immediate effect.

Cyber security firm Darktrace was under the cosh after Quintessential Capital Management reported a net short position of 6.18m shares, or 0.86% of the company's stock as of 27 January.

On the upside, consumer goods giant Unilever ticked higher after announcing the appointment of Hein Schumacher as its new chief executive officer. Hein, who is currently CEO of the global dairy and nutrition business Royal FrieslandCampina, became a non-executive director of Unilever in October last year.

Computacenter rallied after it said annual results would be slightly ahead of expectations following a record fourth quarter.

In broker note action, Auto Trader and Moneysupermarket were both upgraded to 'overweight' at Barclays.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,750.61 -0.19% FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,800.64 -1.17% techMARK (TASX) 4,438.50 0.24%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 258.50p 2.38% Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 5,638.00p 0.97% GSK (GSK) 1,421.00p 0.78% Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 609.00p 0.76% Experian (EXPN) 2,917.00p 0.76% BP (BP.) 493.00p 0.76% Relx plc (REL) 2,393.00p 0.63% Unilever (ULVR) 4,045.00p 0.60% Haleon (HLN) 321.10p 0.50% BAE Systems (BA.) 855.40p 0.47%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Fresnillo (FRES) 828.20p -3.61% Legal & General Group (LGEN) 253.00p -2.99% Prudential (PRU) 1,331.00p -2.95% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 107.30p -2.63% Standard Chartered (STAN) 694.00p -2.61% Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,885.00p -2.33% St James's Place (STJ) 1,205.50p -2.27% International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 167.56p -2.21% Barratt Developments (BDEV) 456.10p -2.10% Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 116.35p -2.06%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Computacenter (CCC) 2,162.00p 8.53% Spirent Communications (SPT) 227.20p 2.25% ASOS (ASC) 827.00p 2.04% QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 348.60p 1.93% Dr. Martens (DOCS) 152.80p 1.87% Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 231.20p 1.67% Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 149.20p 1.22% Britvic (BVIC) 770.00p 1.12% Babcock International Group (BAB) 303.40p 0.66% Barr (A.G.) (BAG) 527.00p 0.57%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

888 Holdings (DI) (888) 76.00p -26.36% Darktrace (DARK) 220.30p -12.51% Ferrexpo (FXPO) 159.70p -5.78% Molten Ventures (GROW) 358.00p -5.09% Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 233.00p -4.82% Auction Technology Group (ATG) 690.00p -4.70% TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 171.70p -4.35% Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 143.70p -4.33% Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 290.00p -3.97% Pacific Horizon Inv Trust (PHI) 656.00p -3.81%