FTSE 100 close: China concerns resurface to send London markets lower
Fresh concerns from China’s real estate market made investors cautious at the start of the week, with both of London’s FTSE indexes closing lower on Monday.
The FTSE 100 dropped 0.85 per cent lower at 7,618.29 while the FTSE 250 was trading 1.0 per cent lower at 18,420.19
Attention was again drawn to the struggling Chinese real estate market, where China Evergrande said it was unable to issue new debt.
The embattled developer said it was dealing with investigations into one of its subsidiaries, causing its shares to crash 24 per cent.
“There had been hopes that intricate financial engineering will stop the property sectors woes from overflowing to other sectors, but doubts have crept back in about the long-term effectiveness of this tinkering,” Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown said.
On the FTSE 100 minerals companies were among the largest fallers with Rio Tinto, Antofagasta and Anglo American all dropped around two per cent. The fate of the FTSE’s resources companies are closely tied to China’s performance.
Entain meanwhile fell over 13 per cent after it lowered its guidance for the full year.
The firm said online gaming revenue in the third quarter will be down by low single digits on a pro-forma basis. It warned that it continues to struggle with regulatory changes in the UK while slow growth in Italy and Australia was also holding back performance.
Fellow gambling firm Flutter fell over 3.5 per cent.
Insurer Aviva was trading 1.2 per cent lower after announcing the acquisition of AIG’s UK protection business in a £460m deal.
It marks another step forward in CEO Amanda Blanc’s simplification of the business, with a focus on three core markets of the UK, Ireland and Canada.