London open: Stocks fall as investors eye US tech earnings

19th Oct 2026 07:58

(Sharecast News) - London stocks fell in early trade on Monday as investors mulled a raft of Chinese data and looked ahead to the release of key US tech earnings this week.

At 0840 BST, the FTSE 100 was down 0.6% at 10,813.35, while Brent crude was off 2.6% at $106.97 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate was 1.9% lower at $99.49 after US President Donald Trump waived sanctions and tariffs ‌on Russia, potentially allowing higher fuel exports.

Danske Bank said: "Still, supply risks remained elevated, as Ukraine struck Russian energy infrastructure on Sunday and attacks on vessels near Hormuz continued to threaten Gulf crude flows."

Investors were digesting the latest data out of China, which showed the economy grew more than expected in the third quarter. GDP rose 4.5% year-on-year between June and September, up from 4.3% in the second quarter and ahead of expectations for 4.4% growth.

Industrial production increased 5.5% in September, an improvement on August's 5.2% growth, while retail sales growth accelerated to 1.1% from 0.4%. However, fixed asset investment slumped 7.2% in the first nine months of the year versus the same period a year earlier, while property investment slid 20.6%.

Looking to the rest of the week, attention will turn to a slew of US tech earnings.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "The tech sector is expected to report 65% earnings growth this quarter and for Meta this would translate to $62.5 billion of earnings simply to hit the middle point of its own guidance range. In addition, any upgrade to its forecast capex spend of between $130 billion and $145 billion could well put further pressure on the stock - and indeed the sector - as investors become increasingly unnerved by spiralling spends.

"Apart from Meta, investors will be kept busy this week with updates from fellow Magnificent Seven members Tesla and Netflix, while elsewhere companies such as Ford, General Motors, American Express, IBM and AT&T will report amid another important week where expectations are high."

There wasn't much happening on the UK corporate front, but LondonMetric Property nudged lower even as it flagged a jump in net income, leaving it on track to meet consensus, despite the challenging macroeconomic backdrop.

Updating on trading ahead of interim numbers, the real estate investment trust said net rental income rose by more than 8% to £240m, boosted by last year's acquisition of Urban Logistics, high occupancy and "very strong" rent review and leasing activity.

The average uplift during the first half from rent reviews was 17%, while rent collection was 99.3% and occupancy was 97.4%.

As a result, LondonMetric said it remained "firmly on track" to meet consensus for full-year earnings per share, of 13.9p.

Imperial Brands was under the cosh after a downgrade to 'hold' from 'buy' at Jefferies, which slashed the price target to 2,700p from 3,500p.

Jefferies said that while IMB has proven proficient at growing value in the combustibles segment, the upcoming sharp, multi-year series of excise taxes in Germany may materially slow growth down.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 10,813.35 -0.63%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 24,466.41 -0.28%

techMARK (TASX) 6,252.87 -0.40%

FTSE 100 - Risers

BP (BP.) 618.90p 0.80%

Ithaca Energy (ITH) 300.00p 0.70%

Glencore (GLEN) 587.60p 0.70%

London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 8,820.00p 0.59%

Shell (SHEL) 3,953.50p 0.51%

Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,553.00p 0.49%

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (DI) (CCEP) 8,425.00p 0.48%

Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 3,820.00p 0.47%

Relx plc (REL) 2,921.00p 0.45%

Pearson (PSON) 1,380.00p 0.44%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

3i Group (III) 2,367.00p -3.93%

Kingfisher (KGF) 340.70p -2.24%

Barclays (BARC) 421.30p -2.23%

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 166.50p -1.91%

NATWEST GROUP (NWG) 653.20p -1.65%

Weir (WEIR) 2,638.00p -1.64%

International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 408.00p -1.64%

BAE Systems (BA.) 1,953.50p -1.51%

Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,828.00p -1.49%

Standard Chartered (STAN) 2,090.00p -1.36%

FTSE 250 - Risers

THG (THG) 36.20p 5.44%

Pets at Home Group (PETS) 232.00p 4.60%

Utilico Emerging Markets Ltd (DI) (UEM) 301.00p 3.08%

Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) 205.60p 2.80%

Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 518.00p 1.77%

Workspace Group (WKP) 357.20p 1.59%

Drax Group (DRX) 793.50p 1.59%

Ocado Group (OCDO) 297.40p 1.37%

Keller Group (KLR) 3,114.00p 1.31%

Energean (ENOG) 750.50p 1.21%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Target Healthcare Reit Ltd (THRL) 111.00p -2.97%

Currys (CURY) 147.40p -2.71%

Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 2.34p -2.50%

Entain (ENT) 433.00p -2.43%

Close Brothers Group (CBG) 370.00p -1.96%

B&M European Value Retail (BME) 277.40p -1.96%

Capital Gearing Trust (CGT) 509.00p -1.93%

Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 958.00p -1.90%

AEP Plantations (AEP) 176.80p -1.89%

Volex (VLX) 620.00p -1.88%