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FTSE 100 lower after flurry of updates, Capricorn Energy down 10%
Fallers today included St James’s Place, Weir and Howden Joinery as jittery investors took no chances in a packed session of updates.
The selling came as the FTSE 100 index remained under pressure, falling 11.83 points to 7840.81 amid worries that troubles in America’s regional banking sector will spread and cause tighter lending conditions that could slow the US economy.
Oil prices have reflected this nervousness, with Brent crude now down to $78 a barrel and BP shares under pressure following a drop of 6.1p to 527p.
Other fallers included wealth manager St James’s Place, even though it reported a “good quarter” as its advisers attracted £4.2 billion of new client investments.
The inflows were below the previous year’s level and short of City expectations, causing shares to dip 62.5p to 1177p. Mining engineer Weir joined it on the fallers board, dropping 55.5p to 1837.5p despite reiterating 2023 guidance.
Elsewhere in the top flight, the strong run for London Stock Exchange shares came to a halt following its first quarter update. Strength in data and analytics offset lighter stock market activity to lift total income 15% to £2 billion, but shares retreated 18p to 7968p.
The subdued trading patterns saw the FTSE 250 index ease 50.55 points at 19,157.42, with Howden Joinery 30.6p lower at 638p after reporting a broadly flat revenues performance by its UK depots at the start of 2023.
Capricorn Energy also slid 10% or 25.4p to 217.2p as it revealed the details of a five-point strategic plan that will see it materially scale back all exploration spending outside Egypt. The former Cairn Energy business has started a sale process for its UK assets, which include five licences in the southern North Sea.
Among smaller stocks, Naked Wines cheered 1.2p to 115p as chief executive Nick Devlin hailed early progress on the company’s “pivot to profit“ turnaround strategy.
He forecast revenues of £350 million for the year to 3 April, leading to underlying earnings at the top end of guidance of between £15 million and £18 million.
Devlin said: “We enter the 2024 financial year as a significantly larger and substantially more profitable business than we were pre-pandemic.”
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