FTSE shares struggling

London shares struggled to make significant progress today after a profits warning from Morrison’s and last night’s losses on Wall Street.

The FTSE 100 Index was only just above its opening mark towards the end of the first hour, climbing 2.1 points to 4426.8.

Shares in Ken Morrison’s supermarket chain were acting as a brake on the Footsie, losing 12% of their value as the group warned that annual profits would be substantially below expectations.

Uncertainty was also created by yesterday’s US weekly jobless figures, which came in slightly up on the previous period.

The news sparked fresh fears about the fragility of the economic recovery and a sell-off of equities on both sides of the Atlantic, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 101 points.

In London, Morrison’s topped the Footsie fallers with a 28.25p loss to 197p after saying trading had flagged at unconverted Safeway stores.

Insurer Friends Provident was the next biggest loser, falling 5% or 8p to 137.75p despite strengthening its position in the European asset management sector by merging its ISIS Asset Management unit with Eureko’s F&C operations.

But Legal & General surged more than 2% or 2.25p to 96.75p after reporting a marked rise in new business growth in the UK.