London open: Stocks fall after record high; US-China tensions in focus

(Sharecast News) - London stocks fell in early trade on Monday after hitting a new all-time high at the end of last week, and as Sino-US tensions dented the mood. At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 0.5% at 7,865.37, having closed at a record high of 7,901.80 on Friday.

Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: "The FTSE 100 is giving back some of Friday's gains after the US downed an alleged Chinese spying balloon, putting a strain on US-China relations, and raising concerns about geopolitical instability.

"Plus, a strong US jobs report on Friday has indicated that the Federal Reserve may have more work to do on interest rates, pressurising global equity markets.

"The FTSE 100 closed at a record high on Friday driven by expectations of a dovish tilt from the Bank of England, a weaker pound after a very strong US jobs report and its favourable sectoral mix which provided a tailwind to the index over the last year."

In equity markets, Hargreaves Lansdown was the worst performer on the FTSE 100 after a rating downgrade by Credit Suisse.

Asia-focused Prudential was also on the back foot, along with luxury fashion brand Burberry, which is heavily dependent on demand from China.

Virgin Money slumped after a downgrade to 'equalweight' at Barclays.

Elsewhere, molten metal flow engineering and technology firm Vesuvius lost ground after saying it had been hit by a cyber attack involving "unauthorised access" to its systems.

On the upside, Lloyds was boosted by an upgrade to 'overweight' at Barclays.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,865.37 -0.46% FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,481.63 -0.54% techMARK (TASX) 4,526.13 -0.47%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Fresnillo (FRES) 825.00p 1.00% Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 53.71p 0.71% Beazley (BEZ) 665.50p 0.60% Compass Group (CPG) 1,934.50p 0.44% Vodafone Group (VOD) 91.47p 0.36% HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 598.80p 0.35% British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,131.00p 0.18% BP (BP.) 486.65p 0.12% Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,929.00p 0.10% Shell (SHEL) 2,416.50p 0.10%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 912.40p -3.92% Prudential (PRU) 1,326.50p -2.03% Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 790.40p -1.84% B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 484.50p -1.82% Ocado Group (OCDO) 727.80p -1.46% Rightmove (RMV) 607.80p -1.23% F&C Investment Trust (FCIT) 980.00p -1.21% Burberry Group (BRBY) 2,450.00p -1.21% CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,895.00p -1.19% Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,715.50p -1.18%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Pets at Home Group (PETS) 388.00p 3.19% Hill and Smith (HILS) 1,402.00p 2.04% Synthomer (SYNT) 165.20p 1.47% Chemring Group (CHG) 286.00p 1.42% Elementis (ELM) 130.00p 1.40% TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 120.40p 1.01% Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 1,911.00p 0.84% Serco Group (SRP) 150.20p 0.81% Tate & Lyle (TATE) 780.60p 0.72% Greencoat UK Wind (UKW) 163.90p 0.55%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Virgin Money UK (VMUK) 186.90p -3.93% 3i Infrastructure (3IN) 330.50p -3.22% Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 287.50p -2.54% Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 141.00p -2.49% Vesuvius (VSVS) 408.80p -2.39% Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 236.00p -2.24% Hunting (HTG) 323.50p -2.12% JPMorgan Global Growth & Income (JGGI) 466.00p -2.10% Tritax Big Box Reit (BBOX) 159.00p -2.09% ASOS (ASC) 943.50p -2.02%