London midday: Stocks turn lower as housebuilders retreat
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Tuesday 01 Jul 2025
(Sharecast News) - London stocks had reversed earlier gains to trade lower by midday on Tuesday as investors eyed US trade talks, with housebuilders in the red after disappointing data from Nationwide.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.3% at 8,735.08.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said: "There is a mild risk off tone to markets on Tuesday as the focus swings back to trade deals as we get close to the July 9th deadline to forge trade agreements with the US. Fears are mounting that the UK and China are the only countries with agreements in place.
"The rally in US, Asian and some European indices in the past three months has been driven by hopes that Trump would perform his usual 'TACO' and cave in at the last minute. If he doesn't do this or if he doesn't kick the can down the road, then the stock market rally could come to an abrupt halt."
On home shores, a survey showed the downturn in manufacturing eased slightly in June as rates of decline in output, new orders and employment all slowed, while business optimism rose.
The S&P Global manufacturing purchasing managers' index increased to 47.7 last month, in line with the flash reading released a week earlier and the highest print in five months.
This was the third straight improvement in the headline PMI since it reached a one-and-a-half-year low of 44.9 in March, but the eight consecutive month of contraction - indicated by any figure below 50.0.
Four out of the five PMI components - output, new orders, employment and stocks of purchases - continued to fall but at a slower rate than the previous month, while vendor lead times lengthened at their lowest rate since March. Meanwhile, business optimism increased to a four-month high.
S&P Global said that manufacturing production was lower for the eighth straight month, as companies scaled back output in response to "weak market conditions, clients offsetting higher costs through reduced demand and uncertainty surrounding government policy, tariffs and the general economic/geopolitical situation".
Nevertheless, Rob Dobson, director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, the PMI survey "provides signs of conditions stabilising".
"The orders-to-inventory ratio, a reliable bellwether of future production trends, also climbed sharply to its highest since August 2024. Inflation of both input costs and selling prices meanwhile nudged lower to hint at a softening inflation trend," he said.
Investors were also mulling the latest British Retail Consortium-NIQ Shop Price Index, which showed that prices returned to inflation in June on the back of a big jump in food prices, fuelled by high wholesale prices and rising wage bills.
In equity markets, housebuilders Barratt, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon were under the cosh after data from Nationwide showed that house prices unexpectedly fell on the month in June, by 0.8%, following 0.4% growth in May. Analysts were expecting a 0.2% jump.
On the year, house price growth slowed to 2.1% last month from 3.5% in May.
The average price of a home stood at £271,619 in June, versus £273,427 a month earlier.
Nationwide chief economist Robert Gardner said: "The softening in price growth may reflect weaker demand following the increase in stamp duty at the start of April. Nevertheless, we still expect activity to pick up as the summer progresses, despite ongoing economic uncertainties in the global economy, since underlying conditions for potential homebuyers in the UK remain supportive.
"The unemployment rate remains low, earnings are rising at a healthy pace in real terms (i.e. after accounting for inflation), household balance sheets are strong and borrowing costs are likely to moderate a little if Bank Rate is lowered further in the coming quarters as we and most other analysts expect."
Standard Chartered lost ground amid news the bank is facing a $2.7bn lawsuit as liquidators allege it helped to enable the laundering of billions of dollars misappropriated from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.
Supermarket chain Sainsbury's reversed earlier gains even as it backed its full-year profit guidance and reported a sharp jump in first-quarter like-for-like sales as consumers tucked into its new range of 'Taste the Difference' products including Spanish Jamón Croquetas.
On the upside, heavily-weighted mining stocks were the biggest gainers, with Antofagasta, Glencore and Anglo American all up.
National Grid and SSE were both higher after Ofgem said it has given the provisional green light to an initial £24bn investment programme to enhance energy security "while enabling the transmission of more clean energy from renewable sources".
An initial £8.9bn in funding has been approved for the electricity transmission sector to upgrade grid, with National Grid set to receive £4.2bn and £3.1bn for SSE.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 8,735.08 -0.30%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,581.71 -0.21%
techMARK (TASX) 5,056.21 -0.38%
FTSE 100 - Risers
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 90.74p 2.25%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,848.00p 2.13%
Glencore (GLEN) 289.60p 2.12%
National Grid (NG.) 1,082.50p 1.98%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,467.00p 1.88%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 79.10p 1.70%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,773.00p 1.43%
SSE (SSE) 1,856.00p 1.37%
Compass Group (CPG) 2,500.00p 1.34%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,859.00p 1.28%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Melrose Industries (MRO) 511.60p -3.62%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,172.50p -2.86%
Barratt Redrow (BTRW) 444.30p -2.54%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 115.95p -2.36%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 281.80p -2.29%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,570.00p -2.12%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,269.50p -2.04%
NATWEST GROUP (NWG) 501.40p -1.96%
Barclays (BARC) 331.15p -1.82%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 868.10p -1.55%
FTSE 250 - Risers
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 282.50p 4.09%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 264.60p 3.52%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 233.90p 3.09%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 293.50p 2.44%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 2,280.00p 2.33%
Foresight Group Holdings Limited NPV (FSG) 452.50p 2.03%
Harworth Group (HWG) 183.50p 1.94%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,763.00p 1.56%
Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) 784.50p 1.29%
Computacenter (CCC) 2,430.00p 1.25%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
XPS Pensions Group (XPS) 369.00p -3.78%
Bellway (BWY) 2,792.00p -3.19%
Coats Group (COA) 77.10p -3.02%
Senior (SNR) 179.40p -2.50%
Renishaw (RSW) 2,800.00p -2.10%
Bodycote (BOY) 572.50p -2.05%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,068.00p -2.02%
Genus (GNS) 2,005.00p -1.96%
Lion Finance Group (BGEO) 6,950.00p -1.84%
TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 4,555.00p -1.83%
Email this article to a friend
or share it with one of these popular networks:
You are here: news
10 Lower Thames St,
London EC3R 6EN