Retailers have a good day as natural resource giants struggle

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JD Sports and other retailers had a good day on Thursday, but the mining and oil sectors struggled (Steven Paston/PA) (PA Archive)

London’s top index managed to rebound from the worst of a tough day on Thursday as the City’s natural resource giants led a collapse.

By the end of the day, a collapse in the share price of Fresnillo, Endeavour Mining, Glencore and others had more than offset what was a good day for retailers.

JD Sports, which set new profit guidance, ended the day up 6.6%, while B&Q owner Kingfisher, Sainsbury’s and B&M all saw strong showings.

The FTSE 100 ended at 7,233.34, a drop of 114.32 points, or 1.6%.

But by the end of trading in the City, the index had rebounded from its day lows, which briefly touched as low as 7,158 points, its lowest since March.

European stocks were also in the red, with the Dax in Germany dropping 0.6% while France’s Cac 40 lost 1%.

On Wall Street results were more mixed. The S&P 500 was up 0.1% and the Dow Jones down 0.4% shortly before markets in Europe shut for the day.

“After a tough few days of losses, stocks are managing to bounce, trimming losses. The Nasdaq has even managed a tentative move into positive territory, sticking its head above the parapet,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG.

“Investors will have been hoping for a bounce, and given oversold ratings across a host of markets, traders will have been expecting one.

“But given the damage done in recent weeks and the still-strong fears about a recession, it seems silly to expect things to return to the orderly gains that prevailed in 2021.”

Sterling fell 0.01% to buy 1.2227 dollars, while one pound would buy 1.1741 euros, down 0.02%.

In company news, JD Sports’ rise was fuelled by the strong sales in recent months, more than 5% higher than the same period a year earlier on a like-for-like basis.

It said the pre-tax profits are now expected to hit £940 million in the year to the end of next January. The initial target had been £65 million lower.

Shareholders of Rolls-Royce also celebrated good news as its shares rose by 1.1%.

The engineering firm said that performance is in line with expectations and that there has been a slow increase in the demand for flights in recent months. Governments have also spent more on defence.

Shares in BT rose by 1.1% after it signed a new deal with Warner Bros Discovery to form a new sports joint venture in the UK and Ireland. The firm also said that it was “on the right track” in its financial trading.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were: JD Sports, up 7.85p to 126.75p; CocaCola HBC, up 89p to 1,687p; Next, up 214p to 6,428p; Ferguson, up 232p to 9,634p; and Kingfisher, up 5.4p to 336.6p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were; Fresnillo, down 69p to 704.4p; Endeavour Mining, down 136p to 1,801p; BP, down 20p to 400.15p; Anglo American, down 155p to 3,242.5p; and Antofagasta, down 63p to 1,340p.