TEMPORARY power provider Aggreko was the biggest blue chip faller for the second session on Monday as brokers cut their price targets on the shares.
The Glasgow-based firm was 3 per cent lower at 2,073p after HSBC downgraded it from “neutral” to “underweight” following its warning on Friday that bad debt provision and adverse exchange rates would take 2.5 per cent off profits this year. Jefferies also lowered its target price for the stock but remained a buyer.
The wider market struggled in the face of adverse news from the US, where two more companies offered downbeat reports. The FTSE 100 index was down 13.2 points at 5,882.9.
Angus Campbell at Capital Spreads said: “The bulls couldn’t be attracted in any significant numbers to buy equities following the sharp sell off across the pond on Friday night.”
Weir Group also suffered a downgrade, with Panmure Gordon cutting its recommendation to “hold” ahead of a trading update in two weeks’ time. Its shares slipped 19p to 1,778p.
But miners and banking stocks were ahead, with Randgold Resources up by 3 per cent or 200p to 7,615p. Among the banks, Barclays rose 1.6p to 235.4p and Lloyds Banking Group added 0.3p to 40.8p.
Royal Bank of Scotland managed to add 0.5p at 281.5p despite a downgrade from Investec, which said the recent share price gains were overdone. The broker forecasts “another jaw-dropping statutory loss” of £1 billion at the bank’s Q3 update 2 November.
In a session with little in the way of major corporate news, shares in BP were 1.5 per cent lower after it finally confirmed a deal with Rosneft about selling its 50 per cent stake in Russian joint venture TNK-BP. Shares were down 6.9p to 443.5p.
NEW YORK: The Dow and the S&P 500 ended flat last night after a late-day bounce, as worries about slower global growth hitting corporate sales were offset by earnings that beat expectations.
The Dow Jones industrial average inched up 2.38 points, or 0.02 per cent, to end at 13,345.89 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index edged up just 0.62 of a point, or 0.04 per cent, to finish on 1,433.81. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 11.33 points, or 0.38 per cent, to close at 3,016.96.