Wednesday, February 6: The FTSE 100(-0.06%) was initially on the back foot as US President Trump offered little sign of progress in China trade talks in his State of the Union address,  Ocado slumped after a fire at its flagship distribution centre and oil majors dipped following a fall in the price of Brent crude in early trade.

Ocado(-6.44%) slumped as it announced a fire overnight at its Andover distribution centre. It was initially believed to have been contained, before causing more damage throughout the night; luckily no employees or members of the public were harmed. The distribution centre provided 10% of current capacity, which will impair Ocado’s ability to meet growing customer demand and grow sales in the interim. However, the business is insured for property, equipment, stock and business interruption losses. Broker Peel Hunt downgraded the stock to hold until the full extent of business interruption can be appraised.

Challenger bank CYBG(+13.99%) experienced its largest intra-day gain as it issued its Q1 trading update. The FTSE 250 bank bucked the trend of gloomier results issued by traditional banks as it announced a net interest margin which is expected to come in at the top end of market expectations.

At the close European equities were mixed, with the FTSE 100 -0.06%, the CAC 40 -0.08% and the DAX 30 -0.38%.