London close: Stocks decline as China slowdown fears persist

LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - The FTSE ended lower on Tuesday as woes about China's slowdown and the weakness in commodities persisted despite a rebound in mining stocks. Glencore (Xetra: A1JAGV - news) reversed Monday's steep decline along with other mining stocks, but this failed to soothe concerns about the sector. The company's shares took a hit after Investec (LSE: INVP.L - news) highlighted there was little equity value for shareholders and that commodity prices were in trouble.

"For now, it seems that the rush for the exit has stopped in Glencore, but it is too early to say that a bottom has been reached, especially with the week's China data still to come," said IG (LSE: IGG.L - news) analyst Chris Beauchamp.

The market is looking ahead to data on Chinese manufacturing and services on Thursday in the hopes of some good news for the world's second largest economy.

Closer to home, UK mortgage approvals rose at the fastest pace since 2008 in August, the Bank of England revealed on Tuesday. Mortgage approvals for house purchases rose from 69,010 in July to 71,030 in August, beating analysts' expectations of 69,800.

Meanwhile, retail sales grew at a much stronger rate than expected in the year to September, and the robust growth is expected to continue next month, according to the Confederation of British Industry's latest monthly Distributive Trades Survey. The CBI said realised trades rose to +49 from +24 in August and a three-month low of +21 in July, ahead of analysts' forecasts for a balance of +28.

"Low inflation and the recovery in wage growth are helping to stimulate consumer demand, but the slowdown in the global economy and tight margins mean retailers won't get ahead of themselves as we head into autumn," said Rain Newton-Smith, CBI director of economics.

In the Eurozone, German inflation fell to 0% year-on-year in September from 0.2% in August, missing analysts' expectations of 0.1%. The data comes a day ahead of inflation data, which is expected to show 0% growth in September compared to a year ago, down from 0.1% in August. The European Central Bank, which is targeting inflation of just below 2%, has said it would consider expanding its quantitative easing programme to address low consumer prices if necessary.

Stateside, consumer confidence rose unexpectedly in September, figures showed. The index monitoring sentiment among US consumers rose to 103.0 in September, up from 101.3 in the previous month and comfortably above analysts' expectations for a 97.3 reading.

"While Fed chair Janet Yellen will mainly be focussing on Friday's unemployment data this week, there is still some significance to the consumer confidence figures released today," said Dennis de Jong, managing director at UFX.com.

Among corporate stocks, Wolseley (LSE: WOS.L - news) was the top faller after reporting a drop in pre-tax profits by £168m to £508m reflecting impairment and exceptional items of £242m and increased finance charges of £48m.

Imperial Tobacco Group dropped after Fitch reported the credit profiles of rated global tobacco companies has diverged in the past two years, as they worsened in Europe while remaining stable in the US.

Supermarkets gained after Bernstein reiterated its outperform rating on Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) and Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) ahead of Sainsbury's trading update on Wednesday. Morrison Supermarkets also rose on the back of Deutsche Bank (Other OTC: DBAGF - news) reiterating its hold rating for the company, and news it will give its workers a 20% pay rise.

Wizz Air (LSE: WIZZ.L - news) flew higher after saying it was on target to deliver full-year operating and net profit margins ahead of the same period last year.

Royal Dutch Shell (Xetra: R6C1.DE - news) , BG Group (LSE: BG.L - news) and BP advanced as Brent and West Texas Intermediate futures climbed 2.1% to $48.38 per barrel and 2.05% to $45.36 per barrel, respectively.

London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) declined as it appointed Nikhil Rathi as chief executive officer with immediate effect to replace Alexander Justham.

Boohoo rallied after posting a 39% increase in pre-tax profit for the six months to 31 August, with revenues up sharply on the back of new customers.

Market Movers techMARK 2,959.18 -1.56% FTSE 100 5,922.73 -0.61% FTSE 250 16,442.49 -1.03% FTSE 100 - Risers Glencore (Amsterdam: GX8.AS - news) (GLEN) 80.25p +16.95% SABMiller (Amsterdam: MI8.AS - news) (SAB) 3,814.00p +4.94% Tesco (TSCO) 171.30p +3.07% Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO.L - news) (ANTO) 491.70p +2.22% Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,537.00p +1.89% Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,543.00p +1.88% Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO.L - news) (RIO) 2,149.50p +1.82% BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) (BLT) 979.00p +1.55% Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 229.30p +1.42% Centrica (Amsterdam: CC8.AS - news) (CNA) 222.80p +1.18% FTSE 100 - Fallers Wolseley (EUREX: WLYH.EX - news) (WOS) 3,656.00p -12.52% Hikma Pharmaceuticals (LSE: HIK.L - news) (HIK) 2,233.00p -8.07% Persimmon (PSN) 1,999.00p -5.22% Taylor Wimpey (LSE: TW.L - news) (TW.) 193.10p -5.11% Travis Perkins (LSE: TPK.L - news) (TPK) 1,927.00p -4.41% Sage Group (LSE: SGE.L - news) (SGE) 491.40p -4.30% Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,335.00p -3.61% Barratt Developments (LSE: BDEV.L - news) (BDEV) 637.50p -3.41% CRH (CRH (EUREX: 558474.EX - news) ) 1,700.00p -3.35% Legal & General Group (LGEN) 230.40p -3.32% FTSE 250 - Risers Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW.L - news) (TLW) 166.60p +5.71% Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,960.00p +3.59% Acacia Mining (LSE: ABG.L - news) (ACA) 247.70p +3.51% Ophir Energy (Other OTC: OPGYF - news) (OPHR) 85.05p +3.34% Wood Group (John) (WG.) 597.00p +3.11% Weir Group (WEIR) 1,144.00p +2.69% Vedanta Resources (Other OTC: VDNRF - news) (VED) 440.30p +2.61% CLS Holdings (LSE: CLI.L - news) (CLI) 1,840.00p +2.51% Hunting (Frankfurt: 0YT.F - news) (HTG) 396.00p +2.41% Serco Group (Other OTC: SECCF - news) (SRP) 100.50p +2.34% FTSE 250 - Fallers Genus (GNS) 1,379.00p -6.00% Aveva Group (Other OTC: AVEVF - news) (AVV) 2,000.00p -5.03% Man Group (LSE: EMG.L - news) (EMG) 148.60p -4.44% IP Group (LSE: IPO.L - news) (IPO) 228.20p -4.32% Dechra Pharmaceuticals (LSE: DPH.L - news) (DPH) 940.50p -4.32% Bellway (Other OTC: BLWYY - news) (BWY) 2,456.00p -4.14% Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 940.50p -4.13% Worldwide Healthcare Trust (WWH) 1,635.00p -3.82% Lookers (LOOK) 167.70p -3.68% Redrow (RDW) 450.40p -3.64% FTSE TechMARK - Risers Oxford Instruments (Other OTC: OXGGY - news) (OXIG) 590.00p +4.15% RM (RM (LSE: RM.L - news) .) 168.00p +3.70% Filtronic (FTC) 6.75p +1.89% Sepura (SEPU) 174.75p +1.30% NCC Group (LSE: NCC.L - news) (NCC (BSE: NCC6.BO - news) ) 272.75p +0.93% XP Power Ltd (LSE: XPP.L - news) . (DI (KSE: 003160.KS - news) ) (XPP) 1,584.00p +0.57% IShares Euro Gov Bond 7-10YR UCITS ETF (IEGM) € 202.56 +0.13% FTSE TechMARK - Fallers Oxford Biomedica (LSE: OXB.L - news) (OXB) 7.91p -5.27% Skyepharma (SKP) 348.50p -3.13% BATM Advanced Communications Ltd (Other OTC: BTAVF - news) . (BVC) 20.25p -2.41% SDL (SDL (LSE: SDL.L - news) ) 321.50p -2.28% KCOM Group (LSE: KCOM.L - news) (KCOM) 87.75p -2.23% Consort Medical (Other OTC: CSRMF - news) (CSRT) 923.00p -1.23% Dialight (DIA (Amsterdam: DI6.AS - news) ) 622.50p -1.19% Torotrak (TRK) 6.77p -1.17% Ricardo (RCDO) 891.50p -0.94% Spirent Communications (Other OTC: SPMYY - news) (SPT (Taiwan OTC: 8431.TWO - news) ) 74.00p -0.34%