FTSE 100 watch: Footsie subdued as rise in sterling weighs

The FTSE 100 index has slipped marginally lower in today’s session, pressured by a rise in the pound, which has reacted positively to the latest macroeconomic data out of the UK. Tesco (LON:TSCO) has been the most notable individual mover, with investors digesting the group’s interim update.

As of 12:36 BST, Tesco’s share price had lost 7.21 points to stand 0.10 percent lower at 7,460.90. The index has been subdued with the pound rising following the UK services purchasing managers’ index for September. A fall in crude prices is further weighing on sentiment, pressuring shares in Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSA) and BP (LON:BP), which have lost 0.52 percent and 0.42 percent, respectively.

In individual movers, shares in Tesco have given up 3.10 percent to 184.15p so far today, after rising more than one percent earlier in the session, as Britain’s biggest supermarket revealed that its sales and profits had climbed in the first half of its financial year, and restored its payout to shareholders, about three years after it was rocked by an accounting scandal.

Reuters quoted analysts at Berenberg as saying that Tesco’s strong beat over earnings forecasts was expected.

“Whilst the dividend was reinstated, again this was expected and came in lower than expected at 1p (our risk arbitrage team was expecting 1.36p),” they added. Tesco’s fall is also pressuring peers Wm Morrison Supermarkets (LON:MRW) and J Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY), whose shares are down by 1.82 percent and 2.75 percent, respectively.

Standard Life Aberdeen (LON:SLA) has been another prominent Footsie faller after announcing plans to offer debt to institutional investors. The group’s shares are currently changing hands 2.54 percent in the red at 422.90p.

The FTSE 100 was 0.13 percent down at 7,458.53 points as of 12:47 BST on Wednesday, 04 October 2017.