Barclays, Taylor Wimpey earnings hit London stocks as pandemic bites

Its shares fell 1.2% in early trading. Medical products maker Smith+Nephew tumbled 3.7% as it posted a lower-than-expected first-half profit, while homebuilder Taylor Wimpey Plc shed 5.0% on saying it expected to complete around 40% fewer homes in 2020.

Bleak quarterly showings by Barclays, Smith+Nephew and Taylor Wimpey weighed on the FTSE 100 on Wednesday, with investors now awaiting more stimulus from the U.S. Congress and the Federal Reserve to shore up a battered global economy. Kicking off the quarterly earnings season for UK banks, Barclays set aside a higher-than-expected 1.6 billion pounds ($2.07 billion) to cover a possible rise in loan losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its shares fell 1.2% in early trading.

Medical products maker Smith+Nephew tumbled 3.7% as it posted a lower-than-expected first-half profit, while homebuilder Taylor Wimpey Plc shed 5.0% on saying it expected to complete around 40% fewer homes in 2020. But a 9.3% jump for Next Plc helped limit the declines on the blue-chip FTSE 100, which was trading flat at 0716 GMT. Next reported a smaller-than-feared decline in second-quarter sales.

Lloyd's of London insurer Lancashire fell 5.7% to the bottom of the FTSE 250 after posting a loss for the first half of the year. The mid-cap index was off 0.2%.