London stocks opened on the back foot with house builders and commercial property leading the lot as the market faced jitters about the effect of Brexit on the bricks and mortar-linked sectors. These were followed by a bevy of insurers and retailers.
Persimmon (PSN), down 5.4% to 1357.5p, led the losing legion as it said its trading through the first half of the year has been strong. It was traced by Taylor Wimpey (TW.), off 5.36% to 123.5p, and Barratt (BDEV), off 5.27% to 367.85p.
Commercial property faltered after Land Securities (LAND), lower 4.9% to 932p, and British Land (BLND), falling 4.65% to 538.75p. Insurers traced Legal & General (LGEN), down 5.21% to 177.25p, while retail followed B&Q-owner Kingfisher (KGF), down 5.23% to 302.9p.
Soon after the open, FTSE 100 was down 17.75 points, or 0.27%,m to 6504.51. FTSE 250 was lower 225, or 1.4%, to 15,891.7. Asia was down overnight, while Wall St were closed. At 8.36am, WTI crude fell 1.98% to $48.02/bbl (£36.55/bbl). Brent fell 1.42% to $49.39/bbl (£37.60/bbl).
Overall about 83 blue chips were on the back foot, 48 of them by 1% or more. Among them were supermarkets, utilities, financial services and multiple miners. Gains were muted to the upside, with Hikma (HIK) adding 0.76% to 2508p.
