FTSE 100 watch: Footsie down amid weak China data

The FTSE 100 has slipped marginally into the red in today’s session, following downbeat data out of China, and with investors digesting a string of corporate releases. In individual blue-chip movers, shares in Glencore (LON:GLEN) are in the red as the commodities giant updated the market on its first-quarter output.

FTSE 100 loses ground

As of 12:46 BST, the Footsie had given up 15.33 points to stand 0.21 percent lower at 7,425.33. Sentiment has been subdued today following data which showed that factory activity in China, the world’s top metals consumer, had slowed this month.

“Data from China overnight is bad for risk,” Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson said, as quoted by Reuters.

Individual Footsie movers

Investors are also digesting a string of corporate updates with the earnings season in full swing. Glencore has been one of today’s most prominent FTSE 100 fallers as it reported that its own sourced copper production was seven percent lower in the first quarter. Glencore’s share price is 3.62 percent down at 301.25p.

Whitbread (LON:WTB) has been another notable blue-chip faller as it posted a 40-percent drop in full-year profit following the Costa disposal, and warned of ‘acute’  political and economic uncertainty in the UK. Shares in the Premier Inn owner are 3.64 percent worse off at 4,581.00p.

At the other end of the spectrum has been Standard Chartered (LON:STAN), whose shares are 5.17 percent up at 704.00p as the Asia-focused lender posted a rise in profits and announced a share buyback. BP (LON:BP) meanwhile has gained 1.54 percent to trade at 560.90p despite reporting a fall in profit for the first quarter amid weaker crude prices during the first three months of the year.

The FTSE 100 index was 0.09 percent lower at 7,433.94 points as of 13:02 BST on Tuesday, 30 April 2019.