FTSE falls as Whitbread wanes
Britain's top equity index extends losses on Friday, with leisure group Whitbread among the worst performers.
|||London - Britain's top equity index fell on Friday, extending losses from the previous session caused by disappointment over the European Central Bank's policy update, with leisure group Whitbread among the worst performers.
Hotels, coffee shops and restaurant operator Whitbread fell 3 percent, making it the worst-performing stock on the blue-chip FTSE 100 index, after analysts at Barclays downgraded their rating on Whitbread to “equal weight” from “overweight”.
However, housebuilder Berkeley rose 6.8 percent after the company said it was on course to meet its profit targets.
Stock markets across Europe were down, extending steep losses from the previous session when the European Central Bank's new stimulus measures disappointed some investors.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down 0.3 percent at 6,255.40 points in early session trading, with the market down nearly 5 percent so far in 2015.
While ECB president Mario Draghi announced on Thursday that the ECB's asset purchase programme would be extended, he did not increase the size of the programme, and expectations of more monetary easing were dashed.
Traders added that expectations of a US interest rate rise this month were also making investors wary of buying into the stock market for now.
“Given the disappointing stimulus package proposed by the ECB yesterday and the high probability of a rate hike by the Fed in December we expect the FTSE to move back towards the lower end of its three-month range of 6,100-6150 points in the short term,” said Thames Capital Markets strategist Nav Banwait.
“However, we still expect the FTSE to close above 6,600 for the year end,” he added.
The FTSE 100 raced to a record high of 7,122.74 points in April but has since lost ground, impacted by signs of a slowdown in China - the world's second biggest economy - and uncertainty over the future policies of major world central banks.
REUTERS