Investors in Ocado have not taken kindly to the news that Amazon will soon be breathing down the online supermarket’s neck. Christopher North, Amazon’s UK boss, said earlier this week that the e-commerce giant is planning to add thousands of products to Pantry, its food department.
The company has also reportedly trialled its fresh-food delivery service, Amazon Fresh, in London in the hopes of rolling it out in the UK.
Ocado, which has delivery deals with Waitrose and Morrisons, has already disappointed investors by failing to unveil its first overseas tie-up by a previously set deadline of the end of the year, and it appeared news of greater competition was the last straw for many. After suffering a 4.4 per cent fall on Tuesday, the FTSE 250 stock briefly sank to its lowest level in more than a year yesterday, before ending 10.9p lower at 315p.
On the blue-chip index, oil was the main theme of the day. Brent crude sliding back towards 11-year lows put pressure on BP, down 5.6p at 355.15; Shell, down 16p at 1,563p; and BG Group, down 14p at 991.5p. But the slip fired up fuel consumers such as British Airways-owner International Consolidated Airlines Group, up 4.5p at 614p, and cruise operator Carnival, up 17p at 3,891p.
That, plus another poor day for commodity stocks, meant the FTSE 100 ended its last full trading session of 2015 in the red, at 6,274.05 after a 40.52-point loss. The dip took its decline since the start of the year to just under 4.2 per cent.
Antofagasta managed to escape concerns over weak commodity prices that beset others, including Glencore, which sank to the bottom of the FTSE leader board after dropping 3.3p to 89.8p.
Antofagasta ended the day as the top riser, 11.4p to the good at 472.1p.
A handful of retailers also finished on positive ground, including Next, 40p higher at 7,275p, and Marks & Spencer, 1.5p up at 456.6p.
On Aim, Fitbug, which makes fitness and sleep-trackers, was left out of puff after it warned of “significant increases in the pretax losses” in the second half. It fell more than 20 per cent to 0.865p.
