Tuesday market close: FTSE falters despite hotel cheer

Premier Inn and Costa owner Whitbread and InterContinental Hotels saw their shares head north on buoyant sales, but further falls for commodity stocks held back the wider market.

The London Stock Exchange sign

The benchmark FTSE 100 Index struggled to make headway closing 7.2 points lower at 6,345.13, as miners and oil firms lost more ground following Monday’s weak China growth figures. Germany’s Dax was slightly down, and France’s Cac 40 was off by 0.6 per cent.

Jasper Lawler, market analyst at CMC Markets, said: “The fading prospect of enlarged stimulus in the eurozone weighed on stocks after the European Central Bank released data showing credit conditions have loosened.”

InterContinental Hotels was the strongest riser in the top flight up almost 7 per cent, or 160p to 2,471p, after its third-quarter update showed good growth in revenue per room.

Tesco was one of the biggest fallers, with shares down 4.5p to 189.1p after the supermarket’s sales fell 1.7 per cent in the 12 weeks to October, according to Kantar Worldpanel research.

Sainsbury’s sales were the only riser out of the big four supermarket players, lifting 1.1 per cent over the same period. However, shares slipped 2p at 265.6p.

Elsewhere, online fashion firm Asos jumped more than 8 per cent, or 246p to 3,174p, after it said its recovery was on track as it held profits firm thanks to surging sales in the wake of a torrid 2014.