British utilities stocks fall sharply as election looms
May 23 (Reuters) -UK utilities led fallers in early London trading on Thursday after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a surprise election in July the previous day, raising concerns over political risk in the sector.
Also adding pressure was National Grid NG.L announcing plans to raise about 7 billion pounds ($8.9 billion) through a rights issue. The news sent its shares tumbling almost 9%.
An index of UK utilities shares .FTUB6510 was down almost 6%, on course for its biggest one-day drop since March 2020, weighed down by Drax DRX.L, Pennon Group PNN.L, United Utilities UU.L, all down more than 5%.
"Overall, we see most risk at the water companies, where we expect most rhetoric and a key political battle ground ahead of next election," wrote Citi analysts.
The broader FTSE All share index .FTAS was down 0.1%.
($1 = 0.7859 pounds)
Reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Amanda Cooper
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