FTSE 100 Slumps Amid Further Trade Escalation Concerns Between US-China

Global Markets: Benchmark indices at the NYSE closed in green, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) Index edged up by 42.32 points or 0.15% higher at 28,164.00, the broader S&P 500 (SPX) index leapt up by 13.11 points or 0.42% higher at 3,153.63, and the technology benchmark index Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) increased by 57.24 points or 0.66% higher at 8,705.18 (at the time of writing, after the U.S market closed).

Global News: On 28th November 2019, markets opened in the red, post the fear amongst investors on re-escalation of the US trade deal with China after Donald Trump signed into a low, effectively implying US backing of pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong. There was also big news surrounding the Saudi Aramco Initial Public Offering, as its lead manager reported that retail part of the company's offering was oversubscribed, and orders worth the US $10.2 billion had been received for the stock. Aurora Cannabis stock was up by 0.89 per cent after reports suggested that it had opened its first retail store in Edmonton, Canada. Amazon.com Stock was up by 1.20 per cent after a European court ruled that the company has not broken any laws on Coty's trade-mark rights. Alphabet stock was marginally down 0.7 per cent post news sources reporting that Axel Springer blamed the company for playing unfairly. Financial Sector opened in the green, with Bank of America rising by 0.21 per cent after an upgrade of outlook by an analyst.

S&P 500 (SPX)

Top Performers*:Â Helmerich and Payne Inc, Under Armour Inc are top gainers and increased by 6.56%, 6.19% respectively.

Worst Performers*: Deere & Co, PVH Corp, and CME Group Inc are the top three laggards and decreased by 4.30%, 2.60% and 2.38% respectively.

NASDAQ Composite (IXIC)

Top Performers*: Paringa Resources Ltd, Asian Pharmaceuticals Ltd, and GreenPro Capital Corp are top gainers and increased by 253.74%, 81.25% and 44.68% respectively.

Worst Performers*: NantHealth Inc, SITO Mobile Ltd and Baudax Bio Inc are the top three laggards and decreased by 24.31%, 18.62% and 18.37% respectively.

Top Performing Sectors*: Energy (up 2.15%), Consumer Cyclicals (up 0.98%) and Telecommunication Services (up 0.85%).

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI)

Top Performers*: Apple Inc, McDonald’s Corp and Home Depot Inc are top gainers and increased by 1.34%, 1.18% and 1.01% respectively.

Worst Performers*: Boeing Co, International Business Machines Corp and Dow Inc are the top three laggards and decreased by 1.48%, 0.98%, and 0.71% respectively.

European Markets: The London’s broader equity benchmark index FTSE 100 traded at 13.35 points or 0.18% lower at 7,416.43, the FTSE 250 index snapped 69.23 points or 0.33% higher at 21,023.55, and the FTSE All-Share Index ended 3.55 points or 0.09% lower at 4,104.54 respectively. Another European equity benchmark index STOXX 600 ended at 409.25, down by 0.56 points or 0.14 per cent.

European News: The Pound Sterling today hit a six month high against euro in trading today. The news of poll results conducted by YouGov suggested that the Sitting party government could win the next month’s general elections by a comfortable majority. In other economic news, the UK house prices have registered the strongest increase in the past seven months but only by 0.8 per cent. On year on year basis, it is worth mentioning here that many of the leading economic indicators have in the past one month have shown signs of stability or have reversed trend, which was previously on the downslide.

In company news, Virgin money the banking division of Virgin group has registered a loss of £194 million on account of the PPI compensations that the company has paid out, in other news insurance firm AXA has decided to complexly divest away from the fossil fuel industry and has vowed to sever its ties with the coal and collar companies, the movie is in consonance with the company’s commitment to support carbon-neutral businesses.

London Stock Exchange (LSE)

Top Performers*: VIRGIN MONEY UK PLC (VMUK), AMIGO HOLDINGS PLC (AMGO) and MENZIES(JOHN) PLC (MNZS) are top performers of the day and up by 20.91%, 13.33% and 6.58% respectively.

Worst Performers*: THE VITEC GROUP PLC (VTC), PLAYTECH PLC (PTEC) and FUTURE PLC (FUTR) are the top three laggards of the day and down by 11.89%, 5.83% and 5.53% respectively.

FTSE 100 Index

 5-days FTSE-100 Price Performance (as on November-28-2019), before the market closed. (Source: Thomson Reuters)

Performers* OCADO GROUP PLC (OCDO), ST. JAMES'S PLACE PLC (STJ) and LAND SECURITIES GROUP PLC (LAND) were in the bright spot in today’s session and up by 2.40%, 1.46% and 1.41% respectively.

Laggards*: VODAFONE GROUP PLC (VOD), EVRAZ PLC (EVR), and NATIONAL GRID PLC (NG.) were the beaten-down stocks at the FTSE 100 index and down by 3.67%, 2.46% and 2.44% respectively.

Active by Volume*: LLOYDS BANKING GROUP PLC (LLOY), VODAFONE GROUP PLC (VOD), and BARCLAYS PLC (BARC).

Top Performing Sectors*: Basic Materials (0.10%) and Consumer Non-Cyclicals (0.01%).

Worst Performing Sectors*: Telecommunications Services (down 2.40%), Utilities (down 1.48%), and Healthcare (down 0.51%).

Currency Pair*: GBP/USD and EUR/GBP were quoting at 1.2910 and 0.8526, respectively.

US and UK Bond Yields (10-Year)*: U.S 10-Year Treasuries yield was quoting at 1.767%, and the UK 10-Year Government Bond yield was trading at 0.670%, respectively.Â

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*At the time of writing