The FTSE 100 opened higher on Tuesday morning, before sinking to trade down around 0.20 percent.
This is in contrast to European markets, which have broadly had a positive start to the day, with the DAX Index up 0.15 percent and the IBEX up 0.066 percent.
Fiona Cincotta, Senior Market Analyst at City Index, commented:
“The FTSE opened higher but quickly started losing ground in early trade with Admiral Group, Barratt Development and Anglo American leading the way lower.
“In contrast, European markets were on the rise benefiting from a major divestment by the French hotel chain Casino and plans by food retailer Carrefour to work with Google on online shopping plans.”
The event on everyone’s lips is the meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-Un, a hotly anticipated event after months of tension between the two leaders.
“The long-awaited meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended up on a positive note with the two heads of state signing a document committing to the complete removal of nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula. The agreement could pave the way for the opening up of the country to the rest of the world and building of new business and trade links in Asia”, Cincotta said.
Retail shares
Retailers had a surprisingly strong morning on Tuesday, with Marks & Spencer, Burberry, Kingfisher and Primark-owner ABP trading up around 1 percent in early trading.
But Aim-listed online retailer Boohoo reported a strong set of results, but shares fell 4 percent after the results were not quite as high as anticipated by investors.
Centrica (LON:CNA), Evaz (LON:EVR) and Reckitt Benckiser (LON:RB.) were the biggest risers on the FTSE 100, with Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV), Berkeley Group Holdings (LON:BKG) and Persimmon (LON:PSN) being the biggest fallers.
ONS employment figures
The latest employment figures from the Office for National Statistics came as a pleasant surprise on Tuesday, recording 32.39 million people in work in the February-to-April period. This is 146,000 more than the previous quarter, and 440,000 more than in the same period a year earlier.
However, wages continued to grow slowly in the three months to April, with average earnings – excluding bonuses – up by 2.8 percent. This is lower than the 2.9 percent growth rate between January to March.
