It was a clean sweep for the laggards among FTSE 100 constituents with not a riser to be found as the blue-chip index suffered a triple digit fall.European debt problems and tensions in Korea were cited as major reasons to be fearful as sellers emerged in force.
Moves by Spanish regulators to encourage consolidation in the Spanish banking sector put the wind up the UK banks, with Lloyds Banking, Royal Bank of Scotlandand Barclays taking a pounding on fears that the Spanish banking
Mining stocks also took a bashing. ENRC, Vedanta and Antofagasta as industrial metals prices headed south.
Semiconductor designers took some lumps on reports of a slowdown in demand.ARM was the highest profile faller after JP Morgan Cazenove downgraded the stock to “underweight” from “neutral” after casting an eye over the sector. The broker thinks a weaker euro is likely to dampen demand for electronics products that are priced in dollar terms in the wholesale chain.
Even chip designer Imagination Technologies could not shake off the gloom encompassing the sector despite saying it is to license technology to device developer Silicon Integrated Systems to use in semiconductor devices.
Preliminary results from Marks & Spencer (M&S) came in with a slightly better than expected profit but the retail giant said it remains cautious about the outlook for the year ahead. Profit before tax and property disposals came to £632.5m in the 52 weeks ended 3 April, an improvement on last year’s £604.4m.
UK insurer Prudential took a tumble when its shares began trading in Hong Kong for the first time today. The company, in the process of raising $21bn to fund the $35bn purchase of American International Group’s Asian life insurance business, watched its shares drop over 2.5% early on in Hong Kong trading.
While no FTSE 100 constituents made progress there were some bright spots among the FTSE 250 crew.
South west England-focused water group Pennon hailed another successful year after lifting revenues and profits in the year to March 31 and raising the full year dividend by 7.4%. Pre-tax profits climbed to £183.8m from £159.4m on revenues that rose to £1.068bn from £958.2bn.
Private equity trust Electra was another riser after it lifted net asst value by 10.5% to 1,900p in the six months to March, up from 1,881p at end September.
In contrast, heavily indebted pub groups Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns saw their share prices go more than a bit flat on fears that austerity measures to be imposed by the new government will hit consumer spending.
Losses at its cash processing division meant profits came in little changed last year at banknote printer De La Rue, despite good sales growth. Pre-tax profits in the year to March were £96.6m, up from £96.1m, on sales of £561m some 12% higher. Operating profits rose by 13% to £109m driven by good growth from the banknote arm.
Plastics group Victrex reported record half year revenue and profits and said second half revenues will be broadly in line with the first half. Underlying pre-tax profits rose to £31.8m in the six months compared with £21.1m last year. Underlying revenue was up 36% to £76.5m.
Home maintenance specialist Homeserve posted a 13% increase in full year pre-tax profit driven by the strong performance at its UK and international operations.Hull-based telecoms group KCOM reported a 64.2% surge in annual adjusted profit as it reduced costs and increased its full year dividend by 25%.
BSS Group, a distributor of equipment for plumbing and other trades, reported a drop in full-year profits but said it made a strong start to the new year.
Gearbox designer Torotrak made its first annual profit in the year to end March with a surplus of £197,000 against a loss of £2m. Revenues rose to £7.6m from £4.6m. Operating cash flow turned negative at a £1.1m outflow as a result mainly of licence fees which were recognised in revenue during the year.
Software group Endace posted a loss of $367,000 in the year to March against a profit of $4.73m last time. Sales rose to $31m from $30.4m. There was a bad debt charge of $1.2m. "The current sales pipeline is the strongest that Endace has had in its history and the markets we address give us good near- and longer-term growth potential," chief executive Mark Riley said.
Confectioner Thorntons is to part ways with its chief executive Mike Davies, who is stepping down to make way for a new chief executive who has specific retail expertise. The announcement of Davies’s resignation was accompanied by news of a further deterioration in trading prompting the group to warn that full year profits before tax will be lower than previously expected.
Shares in ITM Power were a hot property after the energy storage and clean fuel company said it will be undertaking a detailed engineering design study for the NextEnergy Centre in the US on a prototype small scale hydrogen fuelling appliance. The contract is worth $81,000 over a 10 month period.
FTSE 100 - Risers
None
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 50.52p -8.92%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 905.50p -7.13%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 42.70p -5.88%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 228.40p -5.70%
Barclays (BARC) 283.80p -5.67%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,023.00p -5.54%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,079.00p -5.37%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 819.50p -5.31%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 608.50p -5.29%
SEGRO (SGRO) 259.60p -5.19%
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