London midday: Stocks drifting lower ahead of year-end

(Sharecast News) - UK stocks are trading lower on the last full trading session of 2024. As of 1234 BST, the FTSE 100 was slipping by 7.10 points to 8,142.78, alongside a 0.35% decline on the second-tier index to 20,405.55.

Still weighing on investor sentiment was the retreat seen during the preceding session on Wall Street, during which the S&P 500 had yielded 1.11% to 5,970.84, alongside a 1.49% drop for the Nasdaq Composite to 19,722.03.

Dragging on US stocks had been the continued rise in longer-term US Treasury note yields.

"We can't drive major conclusions in a holiday-shortened and thin-trading-volume week, but last week's price action looked pretty close to the narrative of rotation from tech to non-tech stocks that many investors expect to be the theme of next year," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote.

"And they could be right! The US stocks will end the year with the biggest gains since 1997 and the expectations have probably gotten too high for the AI related companies to satisfy."

On the economic calendar for Monday, at 1445 BST MNI will release its US Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index for December.

It will be followed a quarter of an hour later by the National Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales Index and at 1530 BST by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas's regional factory sector index.

In Europe, the annual rate of increase in Spain's harmonised CPI data jumped from 2.4% in November to 2,8% for December (consensus: 2.6%).

Thruvision promotes finance director to CEO role

Thruvision Group announced the appointment of Victoria Balchin, currently its chief financial officer, as its new chief executive officer on Monday, effective 2 January, following Colin Evans' departure in October. The AIM-traded company's board said that, after considering external candidates, it unanimously decided an internal appointment would best support the company's growth strategy, with Balchin playing a key role in maintaining operational effectiveness during the leadership transition. Balchin would continue as CFO with support from company secretary Hannah Platt, while executive chairman Tom Black remained actively involved, particularly in overseeing a sales function review.

Helix Exploration announced an agreement to acquire a helium pressure swing adsorption (PSA) processing plant for $0.5m on Monday, with a $0.1m downpayment, as part of its strategy to establish itself as a leading helium producer in Montana. The plant, previously capable of producing 48,000 Mcf of high-grade helium annually, would be refurbished and installed at Helix's Rudyard Project in partnership with Wikota Design & Construction. It said the acquisition would reduce capital costs, shorten production timelines, and support the firm's goal of starting production in 2025.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 8,140.32 -0.12% FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,426.92 -0.30% techMARK (TASX) 4,598.21 -0.26%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Whitbread (WTB) 2,951.00p 1.41% Airtel Africa (AAF) 114.70p 1.33% Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 3,804.00p 1.06% Entain (ENT) 682.20p 0.77% Barratt Redrow (BTRW) 435.20p 0.67% Mondi (MNDI) 1,169.00p 0.65% Smurfit Westrock (DI) (SWR) 4,327.00p 0.60% M&G (MNG) 196.00p 0.59% Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 121.30p 0.58% Schroders (SDR) 315.20p 0.57%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

St James's Place (STJ) 851.50p -1.62% Diploma (DPLM) 4,220.00p -1.17% Rentokil Initial (RTO) 392.40p -1.11% Halma (HLMA) 2,693.00p -1.07% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 572.20p -1.00% CRH (CDI) (CRH) 7,420.00p -0.86% Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 940.00p -0.78% Relx plc (REL) 3,603.00p -0.77% Haleon (HLN) 375.70p -0.77% 3i Group (III) 3,569.00p -0.75%

FTSE 250 - Risers

W.A.G Payment Solutions (WPS) 83.00p 4.27% SThree (STEM) 282.50p 1.99% Wood Group (John) (WG.) 64.40p 1.74% Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,434.00p 1.63% HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited A Shs (HVPE) 2,605.00p 1.56% TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 3,100.00p 1.47% Caledonia Investments (CLDN) 3,525.00p 1.44% Vistry Group (VTY) 570.50p 1.33% Auction Technology Group (ATG) 550.00p 1.29% Bellway (BWY) 2,416.00p 1.17%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Raspberry PI Holdings (RPI) 617.50p -3.52% Ocado Group (OCDO) 293.20p -3.46% Ferrexpo (FXPO) 109.40p -3.19% CMC Markets (CMCX) 248.50p -2.55% Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) 124.40p -1.97% Indivior (INDV) 976.00p -1.96% Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,676.00p -1.87% Pennon Group (PNN) 585.50p -1.84% XPS Pensions Group (XPS) 338.00p -1.74% Hill and Smith (HILS) 1,852.00p -1.70%