Just a handful of blue-chips were making headway today after the London market tumbled into negative territory.
A string of heavyweight stocks were depressing trading, and by mid-morning the FTSE 100 Index had given up yesterday’s gains to lose 86.3 points at 4,363.4.
Then energy giants BP and Shell had raced ahead as the price of crude oil shot up, boosted by growing speculation the US would attack Iraq.
But today BP and Shell were both trading down, off 13p at 530p and 11p at 449p respectively, over fears OPEC would relax supply curbs when it meets next month.
A gloomy close on Wall Street last night also contributed to London’s downbeat performance.
Weak consumer sentiment data meant markets shed early gains, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average off 94 points and tech-laden Nasdaq more than 3% adrift.
The heaviest faller in the City today was Anglo-Australian support services group Brambles Industries.
It lost 32.5p at 236.5p – a hefty 12% fall – after final figures failed to woo investors. Revenues from continuing businesses were up but margins and profits were both under pressure.
Telecoms were also weaker and mobile phone giant Vodafone – one of the City’s biggest stocks – lost 3.5p at 106.5p.
Rival mmO2 fell 2.5p at 49.5p and former parent BT shed 4.5p at 215p.
Among smaller stocks, time was running out for Marconi shareholders.
The stricken telecoms group responded to growing press speculation that it was poised to unveil a debt-for-equity restructuring by saying talks were ongoing.
Such a process will take control of the company away from shareholders and the stock dropped 6% or 0.11p to a mere 1.6p.
But homebuilder Wilson Bowden built up a 32.5p improvement at 945p after robust demand helped produce record first-half profits.
EGi News 28/08/02
