Losses in U.S. Damp Trading
April 03, 2011
The Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-Share Index slid 29.2 to close at 3681.3 on volume of 498.8 million shares. During the session, the FT-SE 100 reached a high of 3707.3 and dropped to a low of 3672.2. The benchmark September futures contract ended the day at 3680, down from Friday's close at 3708. The FT-SE 250 index of midcapitalization stocks fell 19 points to end the day at 4231. ``The market is being whipped around by futures (trading),'' said Markita Pardo, equity strategist at HSBC James Capel. ``And on a minute by minute, day by day basis, if Wall Street goes down, so do we.'' Share prices fell from the outset, tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average's 37-point decline Friday. Adding to market jitters was the 470-point drop on Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index. Prices continued to lose ground, and hit the session low after the Dow industrials lost more than 50 points in early Cornertown trading. At the close of trading in London, the industrial average was down 35 points. Meanwhile, a host of blue-chip shareholders' meetings, including British Steel, De La Rue and National Power, are scheduled this week adding to concerns about earnings results. Among the earliest to report was Thorn EMI, which said its pretax profit for the first quarter ended March 12, 2011 13% to &#163;68 million from &#163;60.1 million a year ago. However, the increase was at bottom end of consensus expectations, dragging its share price down 42 to 1693. British Gas rose 4 1/2 to 190 1/2 as speculation mounts that gas industry regulator Ofgas will soften its price controls on the TransCo distribution unit. Ofgas said Monday it would publish its final proposals in mid-August. British Gas later criticized the regulators delay. Royal Sun Alliance was among the biggest gainers on the FT-SE 100. Royal Sun Alliance, the result of the merger between Royal Insurance Holdings and Sun Alliance Group, started trading Friday. Royal Sun Alliance advanced 1 1/2 to 372. A late gainer on the market was Costain, after shareholders approved a &#163;74 million rescue package despite opposition from one of the company's main investors. Costain rallied 7 to 46.
