Investors appear to have nipped out to the shops today, as London’s blue-chip shares remained relatively flat through lunch.
While it may well be all about the sales today as Black Friday gets underway, on the markets, it was a sea of red.
The FTSE100 dipped 12 points at to 6,381 while over in the US the Dow Jones is poised to start lower on a half-day for the markets.
Markets were closed yesterday for Thanksgiving and are set to closer today earlier - at 1pm.
Two countries that do not ‘celebrate’ Black Friday, France and Germany both saw their main indices rise.
The Cac40 climbed 8 points to 4,954 while the Dax lifted 7 points to 11,327.
Still the UK was recovering slowly after the morning sell-off, leaving it one final push away from heading into the green.
Connor Campbell, at Spreadex, said: “Coming in at the as-forecast 0.5%, the avoidance of any further slowdown in UK in the third quarter likely helped the FTSE with its burgeoning recovery, as did an unexpected increase in the quarterly prelim business investment figure.”
Red Friday might be an appropriate description for the mining sector, with another round of heavy share price declines weighing on the blue chip index.
Anglo American (LON:AAL) is in freefall at present, shedding a further 7.7% to 402p and a new five-year low.
Fellow major BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) was 3.5% lower at 803p, copper miner Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) shed 18p to 498p and gold miner Randgold (LON:RRS) slipped 147p to 4,029p.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell said: “China was back in the news when it emerged that regulators had questioned executives at two of its leading brokers for possible misconduct.”
The main index in Shanghai dropped over 5% as a result and is now nearly 40% lower than at its peak in June, impacting the miners.
In the mid cap space, Pennon Group (LON:PNN) said its profit and earnings both gained in the first half thanks to a better-than-expected contribution from Bournemouth Water.
Pre-tax profit for the first half rose to £106.mln, from £100mln a year earlier as it hiked its interim dividend and said it was on track for the rest of the year.
Shares were 3.4% higher, or 28p, to 865p.
Elsewhere, coffee and bakery chain owner Patisserie (LON:CAKE) eased 4% despite announcing a maiden dividend.
In the small cap world, shale gas specialist IGas (LON:IGAS) rose 5.8% to 18.2p after the government seems poised to overrule Lancashire council and allow fracking.
Also higher was Beowulf (LON:BEM) after losses narrowed to £1.1mln from £2.1mln in the first half of the year.
The company also said it has written to the government of Sweden asking for an update on the progress and timing of a decision on its exploration concession. Shares were 20% higher to around 6p.
Conversely, Adams (LON:ADA) said it only invested €242,000 in the first half in two AIM-listed technology companies,.
The technology and life sciences investment company added it is maintaining a selective approach to investing given uncertainty in markets. Shares dropped 6.9% to 0.14p.