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 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 was down almost 6, on course for its biggest oneday drop since March 2020, weighed down by Drax, Pennon Group, United Utilities, 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 was down 0.1.

1 0.7859 pounds

Reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Amanda Cooper

Source Reuters