Post-Record High Hangover For Markets, Ocado Weighs On FTSE Despite Surge In Sales

Tuesday showed early signs of a post-splurge hangover, the markets at best holding fire following yesterday’s record highs.

The FTSE cannot escape the orbit of 6,500. Missing out on the various short-term and all-time highs struck by its peers on Monday, the UK index moodily slipped back towards that key level, falling 0.3%.

Even a 13-month high for Brent Crude – the black stuff is trading at $61 per barrel – failed to give the FTSE an energy boost. That’s because BP (LON:BP) and Shell (LON:RDSa) only managed to climb 0.5% and 0.9% respectively, gains that fell short of the losses seen in the mining sector.

A 4.5% fall from Ocado (LON:OCDO) also weighed on the FTSE this Tuesday. The pandemic super stock – it rose from around £10.80 pre-lockdown to a peak of £29.19 at the end of last September, a price it got close to at the end of January – reported a 35% jump in sales to £2.33 billion. This helped it cut its pre-tax losses from £215 million to £44 million year-on-year.

However, it appears investors have potentially been put off by Ocado’s planned £700 million in capital expenditure, and a subdued outlook for UK retail growth in the coming 12 months.

Elsewhere things were just as quiet. The DAX, which spent Monday flirting with an all-time peak, dropped 50 points to 14,030, while the CAC was flat a point or 2 below 5,700.

Closing 15 points shy of 31,400 on the back of stimulus excitement, the Dow Jones is currently set to following Monday’s record-setting performance with a timid 0.1% retreat.

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