London stocks closed lower on Monday as gilt yields rose following Andy Burnham’s first speech as UK prime minister and the start of a Cabinet reshuffle.
The FTSE 100 ended down 75.61 points, or 0.7%, at 10,524.76. The FTSE 250 fell 64.12 points, or 0.3%, to 23,540.71, while the AIM All-Share slipped 0.2% to 757.89.
Sterling weakened to US$1.3418 from US$1.3453 at Friday’s London close. Against the euro, the pound was little changed at EUR1.1755.
Burnham used his first speech as prime minister to promise action on the cost-of-living squeeze and said he would set out a ten-year plan later this year. He also pledged to end rough sleeping and said he would stick to the existing fiscal rules while using any flexibility within them.
The reshuffle began with David Lammy, Rachel Reeves and Steve Reed among the first senior ministers to leave government.
The UK 10-year gilt yield rose to 5.04% from 4.97% late Friday as investors assessed the new government’s early policy direction.
Wall Street was mixed, with the Dow Jones down 0.2%, the S&P 500 up 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite gaining 0.7%.
Computacenter led the FTSE 100 risers, climbing 5.6% after Berenberg upgraded the stock to “buy” and said the company could beat current consensus profit estimates.
Ryanair fell 4.6% after reporting a 34% decline in first-quarter profit after tax to EUR538 million, below market expectations. The airline said Middle East tensions, higher fuel costs and softer pricing continued to cloud the outlook, despite passenger numbers rising 6% to 61.3 million.
Big Yellow Group slipped 0.3% after reporting resilient first-quarter trading but warning that the operating environment may remain challenging.
On AIM, Sunrise Resources rose 11% after announcing a new copper-silver-gold project in Nevada’s Lake Mining District.
Brent crude rose to US$88.07 a barrel from US$86.53 late Friday, while gold edged lower to US$4,011.08 an ounce.
