FTSE in the red
The London market slid into the red today as the scale of losses by internet bank Egg hurt owner Prudential.
Shares in the Pru slipped 4% after it revealed Egg lost £39m (€57m) in the first half of the year, compared with profits of £13m (€19m) 12 months ago.
The FTSE 100 Index was also hit by profit taking ahead of the weekend and drifted 12.6 points lower to 5916.5 by mid-morning.
It followed a strong week of gains which has seen the index of blue-chip shares lift from 5719.7 on Monday morning to 5929.5 last night – its highest level for two months.
The losses at Egg overshadowed a reasonable set of results for Prudential which saw the insurance giant post a 17% rise in profits. Shares in the Pru fell 23.5p to 572p.
It was followed down by rival insurers as negative sentiment swept through the sector. Legal & General was down a 1.25p to 125.25p while Friends Provident lost 2p to 180.25p.
BSkyB moved in the opposite direction – up 12p to 562p – after it said it was on course for 10 million customers by 2010. The broadcaster gained 77,000 subscribers over the three months to June 30 – taking its customer base to 8.18 million.
And shares in aerospace group Smiths gained 30p to 926p as the sector bounced back from losses in recent weeks.
In the second flight, the UK’s biggest builder of retirement homes McCarthy & Stone gained 10p to 1050p as investors cheered the prospect of a bidding war. Private equity firm Barclays Capital and Permira Advisers upped their joint bid for the housebuilder to 1030p a share – valuing the company at £1.06bn (€1.5bn).
This matches a proposal put forward by a consortium led by Bank of Scotland which was knocked back last week. The share price suggested more to come from the two parties.
