Closing post
Time for a recap.
Shares UK housebuilders took a dive after being hit with a double-whammy of challenging news.
Not only was the market knocked by Rightmove’s report, showing that sellers had slashed asking prices of UK at the fastest rate since 2018 in August, but also a profit warning from housebuilder Crest Nicholson.
The company said it was now expecting to make £50m in annual pre-tax profits this year, down from previous forecasts for £73.4m, saying that conditions had “worsened” due to “persistently high inflation and rising interest rates.”
Crest Nicholson said mortgage costs were deterring buyers, particularly first time buyers, who have no equity to support their purchases and were no longer able to draw on government schemes like Help to Buy.
The news hit fellow housebuilders, who were among the worst fallers on the FTSE 100 by 3pm on Monday, including Taylor Wimpey down 4.8%, Berkeley Group down 2.9%, Persimmon down 2.5%, and Barratt Developments down 2.4%.
Elsewhere, analysts were dissecting the effectiveness of China’s interest rate cut, and oil prices bounced amid concerns of tighter supplies.
That’s all from us today. We’ll be back bright and early at 8am on Tuesday. -KM
US stocks open broadly higher
Wall Street has open for trading and the main indices are in positive territory:
The S&P 500 has opened 0.28% higher at 4,382 points
The Nasdaq is up 0.47% at 13,352 points
The Dow is up 0.03% at 34,509 points
