Weak investor sentiment holds back FTSE 100
Worries over the US economy and Greece’s unresolved debt crisis dragged down the leading share index in early trading this morning.
On the FTSE All-Share, broker Icap led the fallers, tumbling 6.32 per cent as it reported a 26 per cent drop in profits.
Electricals retailer Darty fell 5.46 per cent in early deals, as it reported a fall in first-half revenue.
Newspaper distributor John Menzies, after saying yesterday its full-year results will meet expectations, slid more than three per cent this morning.
Miners Eurasian Natural Resources and Aquarius Platinum fell two and 1.94 per cent respectively.
Steelmaker Evraz, part-owned by Chelsea club owner Roman Abramovich, fell 2.14 per cent.
Topping the leader board in early deals was Finnish miner Talvivaara, adding almost 16 per cent, as it said this morning its mine had stopped leaking waste water.
Credit card insurer CPP Group rose 10.42 per cent, while Gem Diamonds added 4.53 per cent.
AG Barr, which this morning agreed the terms of the merger with soft drinks company Britvic, jumped 3.66 per cent. Britvic added 3.34 per cent.
Retailer Laura Ashley rose 3.23 per cent.
UK banking shares were a mixed bag in early deals. HSBC fell 0.33 per cent in early trading, RBS was up 0.27 per cent, Barclays was down 0.02 per cent while Lloyds Banking Group jumped 2.82 per cent.
In Asia, the Nikkei closed marginally higher at 0.04 per cent up, while in the US the Dow Jones closed 0.46 per cent down.