The London stock market experienced a slight downturn on Tuesday, with the blue-chip FTSE 100 index falling by 0.20%. The most significant losses were observed in the retail and personal goods sectors. This decline was primarily driven by a series of data releases that raised concerns about future demand prospects.
Rental equipment provider Ashtead Group (LON:AHT) [LON:AHT] saw its shares drop by as much as 5% during Tuesday's trading session, making it one of the top losers on London's blue-chip index. This decrease follows Ashtead's decision to revise its annual UK rental revenue outlook downwards. The company now anticipates full-year UK rental revenue growth to be between 6% and 9%, a reduction from their previous forecast of 10% to 13%. This revision is attributed to a softening of market conditions.
Despite this, Ashtead Group is maintaining its previous guidance for group rental revenue growth, indicating that their overall business performance remains stable. Alongside the revised outlook, the company reported an 11% increase in adjusted pretax profit for the first quarter, amounting to $615 million. Despite the recent setback in their UK rental revenue outlook, Ashtead Group has experienced a year-to-date rise of 10.5%, indicating an overall positive performance in the market.
In August, the UK retail sector faced challenges due to sluggish consumer spending growth. The FTSE retailers' index declined by 1.53%, marking its third consecutive session of losses. Data from Barclays (LON:BARC) showed a deceleration in British consumer spending growth last month, contributing to concerns about a weakening economy. The annual growth rate in consumer spending, as measured by credit and debit card transactions, dropped to 2.8% in August, down from the 4.0% recorded in July. Barclays attributed this slowdown to persistently rainy weather during the previous month.
Among the retailers, discount store B&M European Value Retail [LON:BME] saw a considerable decline with a 3.4% drop in its share price.
On a brighter note, BP (NYSE:BP) [LON:BP.] recorded gains of 1.85% on Tuesday's trading session. This positive movement was likely driven by Saudi and Russian extensions of their voluntary production cuts, which has seen Brent Crude trade above $90 a barrel, setting new highs for the year.
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