Leading shares are attempting a revival, but with a number of companies issuing updates, some of them have been badly received.
Reckitt Benckiser has dropped 90p to £50.25 after the Cillit Bang and Dettol group unveiled a lower than expected 2% rise in like for like third quarter sales. Excluding the pharmaceutical business, which is destined to be demerged by the end of the year, sales were up 3%, still below City forecasts of a 3.7% increase. It blamed weak European markets and a slowdown in sales of its Mucinex cold treatment after a strong flu season last year.
The company said it expected full year revenues to come in at the lower end of its 4% to 5% target range.
Elsewhere InterContinental Hotels is down 34p at £22.15 despite third quarter room revenues rising 7%, with its strongest quarterly performance in the US for 8 years. China however was showing signs of weakness.
Still with hotels, Premier Inn owner Whitbread has dipped 23p to £42.05 even though it reported record demand for rooms and a strong performance from its Costa Coffee chain. Underlying half year profits rose 18.5% to £256m, and it revealed plans to expand in Germany with a trial of Premier Inn in Frankfurt.
Both companies appear to be subject to profit taking after reasonable updates.
Chip maker Arm has lost 4p to 847.5p as an early rally on the back of good results from key customer Apple faded. The decline came after Arm’s own update showed disappointing royalty revenues in the third quarter, leading to a below-forecast 12% rise in total revenues to $320.2m.
But Shire, hit hard by the collapse of its proposed $55bn takeover by US group AbbVie, has recovered 98p to £38.48. The deal was officially called off on Monday, with confirmation of a $1.64bn break fee to be paid to Shire.
Overall the FTSE 100 has added 35.75 points to 6302.82, despite continuing worries about global economic growth. Chinese GDP showed the econony expanding by 7.3% between July and September, lower than the previous quarter’s 7.5% but slightly better than forecast.
Meanwhile Britain’s public sector finances continue to worsen, with the country borrowing £11.8bn in September, 15% more than a year ago.