By Dave Morris

Anxiety about Boris Johnson's candidacy for U.K. Prime Minister, and the implications for Brexit, depressed London markets Friday.

How did markets perform?

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 declined 0.5% to 7,318.4. That nearly erased Thursday's gain of 0.8%.

The pound, which swooned 0.6% Thursday on the latest Brexit news, dipped an additional 0.1% Friday to $1.2778.

What's moving the markets?

Brexit appeared ready to heat up again on the back of three related events. Talks between the Conservatives and Labour are likely to break down Friday without a deal, with neither party having conceded significant ground. Instead, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May pinned her hopes of her premiership surviving the summer on a final vote on her unpopular Brexit deal, amid reports that she would have to stand down if the bill were defeated. That, and hard-core Brexiteer Boris Johnson's admission that he would "of course" stand for the Conservative leadership, were taken by currency markets to make a no-deal Brexit seem increasingly likely--sending the pound sharply lower.

The China-U.S. trading narrative has dominated market commentary this week. Chinese media have taken a hostile line in contrast with the sunny platitudes issued by U.S. officials. Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng described the U.S.' recent tariff hike as "bullying behavior" (http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-05/16/c_138064271_2.htm) and said China had policy tools to wait out a protracted standoff.

Which stocks are active?

EasyJet PLC (EZJ.LN) shares climbed 4.5% even as it reported a significant loss in its earnings for the first half of the year. The U.K. budget airline reported a pretax loss of GBP272 million, far worse than the GBP68 million reported in fiscal 2018.

Metro Bank PLC (MTRO.LN) jumped another 19.5% Friday after rising nearly 15% Thursday. The upstart lender, which has been struggling after miscalculating its regulatory requirements, successfully raised GBP375 million in fresh capital, more than it had originally targeted.

Just Eat PLC (JE.LN) was down 7.1% on reports that Amazon would lead an investment round in Deliveroo (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-to-lead-575-million-investment-in-uks-deliveroo-2019-05-17), a rival restaurant-food delivery service.

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 17, 2019 05:52 ET (09:52 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Grafico Indice FTSE 100

Da Feb 2024 a Mar 2024 Clicca qui per i Grafici di FTSE 100
Grafico Indice FTSE 100

Da Mar 2023 a Mar 2024 Clicca qui per i Grafici di FTSE 100