Vodafone drop unnerves investors
A drop in quarterly revenues at mobile phone giant Vodafone unnerved investors during a weak session for the London market today.
The 2% drop for Vodafone’s shares, following a 7.7% decline in reported revenues for the first quarter of its financial year, had a bearing on the FTSE 100 Index, which was 15.1 points lower at 5699.1.
While the top flight is still on course for its seventh positive week in a row, sentiment was also shaken by worries over Spain as its borrowing costs remained in bail-out territory at more than 7%.
This impacted on banking stocks, with Barclays down 9p at 1280p, Lloyds Banking Group off 0.1p at 30.1p and Royal Bank of Scotland slipped 0.5p to 211.8p.
Other movers in the top flight included G4S, which fell another 2.8p to 240.7p despite its insistence that losses on its Olympics security contract remained within the £35m (€44.6m) to £50m (€63.8m) range.
Outside the top flight, shares in Goals Soccer Centres kicked on 9% after it agreed a £73m (€93m) takeover deal with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
With the owner of rival Powerleague still to decide whether to table a counter bid, shares rose above Ontario’s 144p a share offer price to reach 147.5p, a rise of 12.5p.
