Key Points
- FTSE 100 closing price of 6,860.39, -2.0%
- UK unemployment rate falls to 4.9%
- Tobacco names tumble on reported US nicotine ban
- Primark-owner ABF falls after trading update
- Elementis (LON:ELM) off highs after approach rejected
- EMA says JNJ vaccine has possible link to rare blood clots
- EUR/USD firm above 1.20, GBP/USD pokes head above 1.40
- Dogecoin rally continues, Bitcoin steady
By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – The FTSE 100 declined on Tuesday, led lower by tobacco stocks after reports that US is planning on introducing regulation to lower nicotine content in cigarettes. British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) and Imperial Brands (LON:IMB) were the two worse performing stocks in the blue-chip index following the reports.
Primark-owner Associated British Foods (LON:ABF) announced a 46% decline in operating profit in the first half of the year as many stores were closed for the period due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Shares fell despite the company reporting record sales since stores in England reopened on 12th April.
Shares in UK chemicals company Elementis had been up as much as 15% after reports that US peer Innospec (NASDAQ:IOSP) had made an offer for the company. Innospec later confirmed they had a bid of 160 pence per share rejected by the Elementis board on 9th April and have ceased active consideration on 15th April.
On the Covid-19 front, The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has discovered a possible link to very rare cases of unusual clots from Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE:JNJ) vaccine. However, the regulatory body also said that the overall benefit risk remains positive.
“At its meeting of 20 April 2021, EMA’s safety committee (PRAC) concluded that a warning about unusual blood clots with low blood platelets should be added to the product information for COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen,” the EMA said in a statement.
“The reported combination of blood clots and low blood platelets is very rare, and the overall benefits of COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen in preventing COVID-19 outweigh the risks of side effects”.
In FX markets, the USD index was broadly flat but EUR/USD was holding firm above 1.2000. GBP/USD had broken back above 1.4000 ahead of the UK labour market data. The data was mixed with the unemployment rate falling to 4.9% but the claimant count increased by 10.1k. It is difficult to make too many judgements on UK labour market data currently as it is clouded by the government’s ongoing job retention scheme.
The cryptocurrency Dogecoin has been in focus on what retail traders are calling ‘Dogecoin Day’. The cryptocurrency pushed up above $0.42 at one stage before paring back slightly but has still posted gains of over 450% in the last seven days. Its big brother Bitcoin has been relatively stable since shedding as much as 15% over the weekend.