London makes subdued start

London shares made a subdued start today after enjoying an 80 point surge in the previous session.

With Wall Street markets closed last night for a public holiday, the benchmark FTSE 100 Index struggled for momentum and was down 11.4 points at 3681 by 9am.

Most of the trading interest was focused on the contrasting fortunes of two of the biggest companies to report figures today.

News and information group Reuters fell almost 9% – off 13.5p at 140p – after announcing its first annual loss as a public company.

The company is also cutting 3,000 jobs over the next three years and said recurring revenues had deteriorated in the current financial year.

On a brighter note, B&Q-to-Comet group Kingfisher surged more than 5%, or 11.25p to 219.25p, after informing the market that full-year profits were likely to be better than expectations.

The City was also encouraged by Kingfisher’s comments that its plans to demerge its electricals business remained on track.

Elsewhere in the Footsie, financial services group Bradford & Bingley’s shares were 3% lower – off 8p at 271p – after the former mutual warned growth in residential property prices was slowing.

That offset encouraging figures showing an 8% rise in annual underlying pre-tax profits.