FTSE drifts into red
The FTSE 100 Index drifted into negative territory today following an early morning rally.
A mini rebound by Asian stocks helped the London market to a positive start after the shock of losing another 100 points last night.
But a strong performance from a number of blue-chips was not enough to keep the Footsie in the black and it fell 24.5 points to 5495.2 by mid-morning.
Defence group BAE Systems was the heaviest faller, off 5% or 15.75p to 333p, after news of delivery delays for the A380 superjumbo raised fears that it will have to accept a lower price for its 20% stake in Airbus, which the defence group is currently in the process of selling.
Tesco also slid after first quarter like-for-like sales growth of 4.5% came in at the lower end of City forecasts. Shares slipped 5p to 324.75p, even though chief executive Terry Leahy reported another strong international performance from the supermarket chain.
Rival Sainsbury’s was cheered by the news and saw it shares gain 3p to 314p.
And banking group Lloyds TSB gained 8p to 511p after investment bank Morgan Stanley upgraded it and set a 611p target.
Outside the top flight, Associated British Ports jumped almost 8% – up 57p at 834p – after backing a £2.5bn (€3.7bn) takeover proposal from a financial consortium led by Goldman Sachs.
Retailer Woolworths gained 2% or half a penny to 30.5p despite saying trading at its high street stores continued to be difficult. Investors welcomed the news a reshaped business should generate better results over the crucial Christmas period.
But department store chain House of Fraser saw its shares slide 1.5p to 133.5p after it said like-for-like sales were down 2.4% for the 19 weeks to June 10, largely as a result of a cut in promotions this year.
