London close: Stocks plummet after ECB

8th Dec 2011 16:43

The Footsie took a tumble in the afternoon as initial optimism following the European Central Bank (ECB) decision to cut rates quickly faded after a press conference with its president Mario Draghi. In the last two-or-so hours of trade, London's blue chip index dropped more than 100 points from its intraday high of 5,599 to swing into the red, closing at 5,484. Investors will now be looking ahead to what many see as a make-or-break summit for the euro tonight in Brussels.ECB CUTS RATES, DRAGHI DISAPPOINTSThe ECB today announced a barrage of new measures to help contain the credit crisis and to limit the risk that the provision of credit to the wider economy could be hampered by the resulting strains. He announced new three year loans and relaxed the criteria on what kinds of collateral the ECB would accept in exchange for cash. Meanwhile, the ECB announced a 25 basis point cut in its key policy rate, in line with market forecasts, to 1.0%. However, Draghi denied that previous comments he made about "other elements" of ECB support implied the ECB planned to wade into the government bond market. He said he was "kind of surprised" his words had been interpreted in this way. Markets took this as a flat denial and responded accordingly.Also worth noting, the December 2011 Eurosystem staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area now foresee annual real gross domestic product growth for the Eurozone coming in at between -0.4% and 1.0% in 2012, and at between 0.3% and 2.3% in 2013. In other news, the Bank of England announced at midday that the Monetary Policy Committee voted to maintain its key policy rate unchanged at 0.5%, as expected. Likewise, the size of its asset repurchase programme has been kept at £275bn. The Committee has added that it expects the programme to take another two months to complete and that its scale will be kept 'under review'. The minutes of the meeting will be published on the 21st of December. BANKS TUMBLE AFTER ECB, DEFENSIVES IN DEMANDBanks dropped following the Draghi press conference, with Lloyds, RBS and Barclays among the heaviest fallers. Miners followed suit with Xstrata, Lonmin and Rio Tinto falling.Defensive stocks took the top spots on the risers list, as falling risk appetite prompted investors into 'safer' assets. Tobacco stocks British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco were among the high risers. Banking firm Standard Chartered finished also fall, albeit by a lesser rate, after saying its income for 2011 is now expected to grow at "just below a double digit rate" after a depreciation in Asian exchange rates against the dollar. Previously the bank forecast double digit revenue growth, but today it said it had been hit by Asian exchange rates falling by up to 5% since its third quarter statement BT was on the up after signing an agreement with Orange to allow their telepresence users to communicate with one another, in a bid to "help telepresence users reach more partners, suppliers, customers and business prospects at public and private end points across their networks". Sector peer Vodafone was also in demand.Pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca was also higher despite announcing that it will cut 1,150 jobs from its sales force in the US, as part of its "ongoing strategy to operate its business more efficiently to best serve patients". The mass lay-off amounts to 24% of its sales organisation stateside and is expected to cost the firm between $50m and $100m in restructuring costs. Sector peer GlaxoSmithKline also rose.Meanwhile, GKN fell after Credit Suisse downgraded the stock from outperform to neutral. FTSE 250 MOVERS: PZ CUSSONS SINKS, ASHTEAD JUMPS'Imperial Leather' soap maker PZ Cussons was the biggest faller after it warned that overall profit in the six months to the end of November will come in below expectations. The firm said high raw material costs and adverse exchange rate movement had continued to impact margins in the first half of the year. It has also been hit by severe weather in Thailand and social unrest in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Ashtead, the plant hire group, was in the top spot after saying it expects full-year profits to be "substantially ahead" of expectations after seeing its underlying pre-tax profit soar nearly 200% for the first half ended 31 October. Thomas Cook fell on the news that it is to be downgraded from the FTSE 250 to the FTSE Small Caps index. This is also true for Mothercare and Premier Foods. BCFTSE 100 - RisersBritish American Tobacco (BATS) 3,015.00p +1.53%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 318.20p +0.86%BT Group (BT.A) 191.70p +0.84%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,440.00p +0.84%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,369.00p +0.72%Reed Elsevier (REL) 514.00p +0.59%Aggreko (AGK) 1,873.00p +0.48%Shire Plc (SHP) 2,149.00p +0.37%AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,923.50p +0.34%Diageo (DGE) 1,371.00p +0.33%FTSE 100 - FallersLloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 25.08p -7.40%Essar Energy (ESSR) 226.10p -6.45%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 20.92p -5.51%IMI (IMI) 737.00p -4.47%Xstrata (XTA) 990.00p -4.44%Lonmin (LMI) 1,010.00p -4.08%Barclays (BARC) 180.40p -3.71%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 451.50p -3.59%Amec (AMEC) 906.50p -3.56%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,216.50p -3.52%FTSE 250 - RisersAshtead Group (AHT) 211.70p +13.82%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 39.50p +10.61%AG Barr (BAG) 1,215.00p +2.53%AZ Electronic Materials SA (WI) (AZEM) 241.50p +2.33%Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 655.00p +2.18%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 520.00p +2.16%Kentz Corporation Ltd. (KENZ) 480.00p +2.13%QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 131.10p +2.10%Fidessa Group (FDSA) 1,641.00p +1.86%Pace (PIC) 70.40p +1.81%FTSE 250 - FallersPZ Cussons (PZC) 308.70p -10.44%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 14.86p -9.33%Sports Direct International (SPD) 209.00p -8.17%London & Stamford Property Ltd. (LSP) 106.50p -7.55%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 447.50p -6.67%Hays (HAS) 63.40p -6.56%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 280.60p -6.47%Micro Focus International Plc (MCRO) 377.20p -6.43%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 10.96p -6.16%Mothercare (MTC) 153.90p -5.87%