FTSE 100 watch: Footsie dips amid Brexit worries and global growth concerns

The UK benchmark index has fallen into the red in today’s session, pressured by global growth worries and Brexit concerns at home. easyJet (LON:EZJ) meanwhile has soared to the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard after updating investors on its first-quarter performance.

FTSE 100 slips lower

As of 12:24 GMT, the Footsie had given up 33.28 points to stand 0.48 percent lower at 6,937.31. Market sentiment around the world has been subdued as the International Monetary Fund trimmed its global growth forecast for the current year. At home, Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan B has also failed to cheer up investors.

Individual movers

In individual FTSE 100 movers shares in easyJet have been in demand even as the low-cost carrier unveiled extra costs related to last month’s drone disruption at London’s Gatwick airport. The company, however, reassured investors that it booking levels remained encouraging for the first half of its financial year despite Brexit uncertainty.

“The drone disruption at Gatwick in December means these results aren’t quite what easyJet was hoping for at the start of the year, but it hasn’t blown things too far off course,” said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Nicholas Hyett, as quoted by Reuters. The airline’s shares are currently changing hands 6.16 percent higher at 1,233p.

At the other end of the spectrum has been BHP Group (LON:BHP), which reported that its productivity during the first half of its financial year had been impacted by unplanned production outages at Olympic Dam, Spence and Western Australia Iron Ore, with a total negative impact of approximately $600 million. The miner’s shares are 1.70 percent down at 1,583.60p.

The FTSE 100 was 0.34 percent down at 6,947.18 points as of 12:36 GMT on Tuesday, January 22, 2019.