Blue-chip index closes more than 1% lower
Banks and miners in retreat as Footsie slips
Published:
LONDON’S blue-chip share index shed more than 1% yesterday after soaring oil prices and losses for heavyweight sectors undermined trading.
Banks and miners featured among the fallers as the FTSE 100 index closed 66.1 points lower at 6,204.7.
Carphone Warehouse was the session’s worst performer, down more than 7% to 268p as investors expressed disappointment with Thursday’s announcement of a £1.1billion deal with US consumer electronics group Best Buy.
Banks were on the retreat as the Footsie shipped some of its recent gains. Barclays was down 11.5p to 451.5p, the Royal Bank of Scotland shed 10.5p at 347p, HBOS was 8.5p lower at 505p and Lloyds TSB weakened by 10.75p to 433p.
Miners were in negative territory as Kazakhmys fell nearly 7% or 128p to £17.86 after revealing it had rejected an approach from Eurasian Natural Resources, which was 19p better at £13.07.
Nuclear power provider British Energy was also a loser as speculation swirled over its takeover saga sending its shares down 14p to 701p.
Supermarkets fared better, with Morrisons up 2p at 290p and rival Sainsbury’s 3.5p stronger at 398.75p.
William Wordie, of broker Redmayne-Bentley’s Highland branch, noted that Aberdeen Asset Management was down 5.7% at 137.25p after three analysts downgraded expected earnings per share for the next two years.
Stagecoach retreated 3.75p to 249.75p after a broker kept its “sell” rating, viewing the group’s rail exposure negatively “given the slowing economic environment”.
