Two FTSE 100 companies have reported quarterly updates today, but they probably wish they hadn't bothered.
Advertising group WPP has fallen 46.5p to 583.5p, a near 7.5% drop, after reporting first-quarter revenue growth below expectations, with a slowdown in Western Europe in March.
And pharmaceuticals group Shire, which was boosted earlier this week by news of US approval for its Vyvanse ADHD treatment for adults, is now losing ground. Its shares have slid 42.5p to 939.5p after Vyvanse sales came in slightly under forecasts.
Miners were also weaker, especially Antofagasta after yesterday's news of Japanese investment in two of its Chilean projects. Numis cut its recommendation from reduce to sell with a 576p target price.
It said: "The price [of the Japanese deal] implies a value of £6bn [including £2bn of cash] for the Antofagasta group. In contrast the market is valuing it at £8bn."
Antofagasta fell 22.5p to 786p while Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation continued its recent weakness, down 46p to £12.64.
But banks edged higher after all the recent turmoil. Perhaps Barclays - up 10.75p to 466p - playing down talk of a rights issue has done the trick temporarily. HBOS, the other bank widely tipped for a cash call, added 11.5p to 500.5p on hopes it too could avoid such a thing, while Alliance & Leicester has added 20.5p to 513.5p. But this relief rally could well run out of steam - it is unlikely the pain is all over just yet.
After Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, at least in terms of cutting the price target for ITV, down 1.8p to 64.3p. Yesterday Goldman reduced its forecast from 83p to 66p, and today Morgan has cut from 67p to 55p.
The bank said: "A few straws in the wind (the first quarter BellWether survey, unusually poor Gannett advertising figures in March, the decision by the Daily Mail to raise its cover price by 5p suggesting weaker national advertising, the lurch down in the housing market, anecdotal feedback from media buyers) suggest that the UK display advertising environment has suddenly deteriorated. We maintain our ITV 1 advertising growth forecast at -2.5% in 2008 but move to -6% in 2009 (was -2%) and -2.5% in 2010 (-1%)."
Overall though, the FTSE 100 is currently 12.3 points higher at 6063.0.
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