London close: Stocks fall as post-Olympic blues set in

13th Aug 2012 17:07

- Global equities finish broadly lower- GDP growth a concern in Japan and China- Greek GDP beats expectationsMixed news from the Eurozone and concerns over growth in Asia sent most stock markets across the globe into the red on Monday."As the post-Olympic blues set in, European markets appeared to sense the weaker sentiment, with poor volumes and a dearth of economic data resulting in a mainly sideways and lacklustre trading session," said market strategist Brenda Kelly from CMC Markets.Meanwhile, trader Simon Furlong from Spreadex, said that investors were "biding their time till tomorrow as GDP figures in Europe and retail figures in the states come out."The Japanese economy grew by just 0.3% in the second quarter on the back of weak consumer spending. Annualised gross domestic product (GDP) growth was just 1.4% in the April-June period, well below the 5.5% growth the previous quarter and under the 2.3% expansion expected. However, the poor data has increased speculation that the Bank of Japan would step up with policy easing. China was also providing some concern on markets today after Bank of America Merrill Lynch lowered its 2012 GDP growth estimate for the world's second-largest nation from 8% to 7.7%. The US investment bank is the latest in a string of brokerages to reduce its growth forecasts for China.In the Eurozone, Greek GDP fell by 6.2% year-on-year in the second quarter, better than the 7.6% contraction expected by Barclays Capital. "This looks like a better start to the year than we expected," said the investment bank's analyst Fabrice Montagne.Michael Fuchs, the deputy head of Angela Merkel's CDU party, said at the weekend that Germany will block new aid to Greece if it's not happy with the Troika's findings. "You can quote me: even if the glass is half-full, that is not enough for a new aid package...Germany cannot and will not agree to that," he said. FTSE 100: Petrofac and resource stocks provide a dragOilfield services firm Petrofac was leading the fallers on the Footsie despite reporting a strong first half as investors turned cautious on the pace of growth going forward. "Even though earnings per share beat, the market hasn't been told anything positive it didn't already know. Some analysts are citing the number of delayed contracts awarded in Onshore Engineering and Construction as a reason to temper FY'13 outlook," said trader David White from SpreadEX.Mining peers Vedanta, Kazakhmys and Polymetal were also out of favour over concerns about the global economy. Oil giant BP was slightly lower after announcing the sale of its Sunray and Hemphill gas processing plants in Texas for $227.5m. Heading the other way was under-fire banking group Standard Chartered as it continues to recover from its recent sell-off. The lender is now in talk with with New York state regulators over how much a settlement would cost. Investec reiterated its 'buy' rating on the stock today, saying that the group's operational outlook has not been materially impaired in spite of the issues with alleged dealings with the Iranian government.FTSE 250: COLT lifts telecoms higherTelecoms group COLT was leading the risers on the second-tier index after a bolt-on acquisition of a UK cloud computing specialist, beefing up its presence in the small to medium enterprises (SME) market. Sector peers TalkTalk and Cable & Wireless Communications were also performing well on Monday afternoon. Outsourcing and energy services group MITIE was among the fallers despite saying it has made a 'good start' to its financial year with 87% of budgeted revenues for the year having already been secured. ?Recruitment firm Michael Page fell after its profits took a tumble as market conditions worsened in the second quarter; things are not looking much brighter for the second half of the 2012 either. ?FTSE 100 - RisersSchroders (SDR) 1,419.00p +0.85%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 31.64p +0.83%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 325.70p +0.74%G4S (GFS) 264.30p +0.69%National Grid (NG.) 692.50p +0.65%Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 272.00p +0.63%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 284.20p +0.57%BAE Systems (BA.) 316.10p +0.54%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,333.50p +0.53%Tesco (TSCO) 329.10p +0.53%FTSE 100 - FallersPetrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,486.00p -5.17%CRH (CRH) 1,219.00p -2.40%Vedanta Resources (VED) 977.00p -2.01%Whitbread (WTB) 2,110.00p -1.86%Croda International (CRDA) 2,417.00p -1.83%Wolseley (WOS) 2,448.00p -1.49%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,117.00p -1.41%ICAP (IAP) 332.50p -1.39%Amec (AMEC) 1,076.00p -1.37%Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,038.00p -1.33%FTSE 250 - RisersHeritage Oil (HOIL) 167.10p +5.89%COLT Group SA (COLT) 119.80p +4.26%Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 3,175.00p +3.35%TUI Travel (TT.) 204.90p +3.22%Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 33.50p +2.95%TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 184.90p +2.84%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 16.66p +2.40%Homeserve (HSV) 225.10p +2.32%Home Retail Group (HOME) 84.90p +2.23%Ruspetro (RPO) 152.00p +2.01%FTSE 250 - FallersPetra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 98.00p -4.39%Mitie Group (MTO) 274.00p -4.13%Ophir Energy (OPHR) 501.00p -3.56%IP Group (IPO) 137.50p -3.03%Cookson Group (CKSN) 581.00p -3.00%Hunting (HTG) 781.00p -2.80%Barr (A.G.) (BAG) 438.10p -2.34%Kier Group (KIE) 1,266.00p -2.31%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 37.30p -2.30%Drax Group (DRX) 473.90p -2.15%BC