Any lingering hopes troubled telecoms group Cable & Wireless had of holding on to its place in the FTSE 100 Index were disappearing today.
The group lost 8% in early trading as investors continued to punish it for the revelation it faces a potential £1.5bn tax liability.
C&W is already below the cut-off point FTSE will use to calculate the stocks to be booted out of the top flight in this week’s reshuffle.
The actual calculations will be based on tonight’s closing prices and C&W’s early tumble pushed it down 3.75p to just 44p.
The fall came despite a relatively brighter start for the FTSE 100 as a whole, which was up 31.9 points at 3965.8 by 9am.
Banks were among those recovering their poise after yesterday’s fall through the 4000 barrier to the lowest close for more than a month.
Barclays was up 4.25p at 398.25p, Lloyds TSB added 5p at 478p while HSBC rose 4.5p to 720p and Royal Bank of Scotland edged up 22p to 1487p.
Elsewhere, drug giant GlaxoSmithKline was up 16p at 1184p while AstraZeneca was 8p higher at 2298p after strong trial results on a key drug.
AstraZeneca said tests on Exanta, designed to prevent blood clots, had once again showed it proved superior to a rival treatment.
EGi News 10/12/02
