FTSE 100 crashed more than 2% in opening trades as investors battened down following the attacks on Ukraine overnight by Russia. Oil and gold surged ahead, but the blue-chip index was down 174 at 7,324.
Only three Footsie stocks were higher at 9am, with Russia-focused stocks unsurprisingly leading the slump. Airlines were also under pressure and on a big day for company results even those seemingly doing well took a bashing.
Lloyds Bank saw its profits to surge to £6.9bn, following in the footsteps of HSBC and Barclays earlier this week. The bank also raised its bonus pool to nearly £400mln and boosted its dividend but its share price was down 7% nonetheless.
Shares in Rolls-Royce fared even worse, plummeting 14% despite returning to profit. The aeroengineer reported an operating profit of £513mln, but also announced that chief executive Warren East will be stepping down at the end of the year.
One of the risers was weapons maker BAE Systems, which forecast further growth as and profit margin expansion after announcing revenue increased by 13% in last year. The company said it increased underlying profit to £2.2bn on sales up 5% to £21.3bn.
Elsewhere, Diversified Energy has announced the securitisation of assets in the Barnett Shale in North Texas. The company highlighted that it represents the company’s second sustainability-linked ABS and fourth ABS since late 2019.
Seeing Machines is to install its pilot fatigue monitoring system in aircraft used by Air Ambulance Victoria. It will be the first time that an eye-tracking, pilot monitoring system has been installed anywhere in the world, said the Aussie-based company.
Caerus Minerals and Bezant Resources meanwhile were pleased with results from dump sampling and drilling at their joint venture projects in Cyprus. At Troulli, one of the prospects, the average copper grade from stockpile sampling was 1.2%.