Poor start for Tullow Oil on FTSE
Top flight debutants Taylor Wimpey and Irish company Tullow Oil experienced a poor start to their first day of trading on the FTSE 100 Index today.
The promoted firms earned places on the fallers board in mid-session trading as the London market struggled for direction with little in the way of corporate or economic news.
Tullow Oil’s inaugural appearance in the FTSE 100 also got off to a bad start, shedding 4.5p to 602.5p.
The benchmark index rose by 29.2 points to 6485.9, boosted by a strong showing from heavily-weighted miners.
But poor performances from property groups and housebuilders, such as new entrant Taylor Wimpey, dragged on the Footsie.
Taylor Wimpey shed 7.25p to 280.5p, or 3%, amid fears over the sector’s exposure to the slowing US housing market.
Heating and plumbing firm Wolseley was also off 30p at 818.5p – a fall of nearly 4% – after warning that the current credit crunch would add to the group’s problems in the US housing market.
Meanwhile across the housebuilding sector, blue chips were suffering, with Persimmon off 12p at 921p and Barratt Developments down 12.5p at 773.5p.
Crisis-hit mortgage lender Northern Rock’s shares were under more pressure today amid fresh talk of a cut-price sell-off of the business.
Northern was down 2.2p at 192.1p, although it continued to see volatile trading, switching between positive and negative territory as new rumours surfaced.
The stock fell nearly 9% at one stage as JP Morgan brokers said a discounted sale was the most likely outcome for the firm, despite weekend reports that few buyers had expressed interest.
Fellow mortgage lender Alliance & Leicester was dragged down by Northern Rock, slipping 22p to 715p.
Among the risers, miners were buoyed by commodities prices and fresh reports of robust Chinese demand.
BHP Billiton led the way, up 77p at 1733p, followed by Xstrata up 141p at 3285p.
