With investors jittery about businesses in the financial sector, it is a bad move to have to issue a profit warning. That rule has just been reinforced by fund management group BlueBay Asset Management.
It said performance fees would be lower than expected, and thus profits for the year would miss market forecasts. And inevitably, the company's shares have suffered, down 15% to 279p. Even a comment from chief executive Hugh Willis that profits would be broadly in line with last year's figure had little positive effect.
The company's broker Credit Suisse has not helped much. It retained its outperform rating, but noted: "The company is restructuring the Value Recovery Fund, reducing management fees in return for lock-ins - this will affect 2008/9 revenues but ought to improve net flows. The net effect on 2009 is likely to be a small negative."
After its positive start, the FTSE 100 has now slipped back, down 10.7 points to 5792.1.
Telecoms companies dipped as investors switched out of the sector, with Vodafone, BT and Cable & Wireless all down around 2%.
UBS's earlier comments - in relation to Cadbury and Unilever - about slowing growth in emerging markets seems to have spilled over into brewer SABMiller, down 41p to £11.67. The company, which was under pressure last week on concerns about increased competition if InBev succeeds in its bid for Anheuser-Busch, makes the bulk of its money from emerging markets.
But miners are still in demand, on both rising commodity prices and merger speculation. Brazil's Vale said last week it planned to raise $15bn, and analysts believe it could be interested in Anglo American, up 129p at £33.18.
ENRC rose 99p to £14.20 after a positive note from ABN Amro. The bank said: "We upgrade ENRC to buy from hold with a new target price of £16.50 (£13 previously) on the back of strong ferrochrome and iron ore pellet price assumptions."
