FTSE makes jittery start to week

A poor start to the session on Wall Street and jitters about tomorrow’s UK inflation data left London shares firmly in the red today.

After edging into the black in early trading, the FTSE 100 Index lost ground during the day to stand 33.2 points down at 4360 by the close.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was nearly 44 points adrift shortly after the end of the session in London after brokers recommended US investors sell semiconductor shares.

In London, market watchers said investors’ thoughts were on tomorrow’s inflation data from the Office for National Statistics.

Expectations are for a rate of 1.75% year-on-year, edging towards the Bank of England’s 2% target.

“Anything much above this will certainly suggest we’ll see a rate hike by the Bank of England in the next few months, putting equities under additional downward pressure,” one analyst said.

Marks & Spencer was in the red today as investors weighed up a strategy aimed at fending off an approach from billionaire tycoon Philip Green.

The 4p fall to 364p left the stock far from the 400p it would have moved towards if a takeover was on the cards.

The retailer pledged to return £2.3 billion to shareholders and sell its financial services division in a drive to focus on core customers.

Top of the losers was pharmaceuticals giant Alliance UniChem, which lost ground following gains made during bid speculation on Friday. Shares weakened 27.5p to 662.5p today.

Other losers in the sector were GlaxoSmithKline, off 21p to 1071p, and AstraZeneca, retreating 40p to 2326p.

The session’s highest riser was supermarket Morrisons, which added more than 2% or 5p to 196p, as it recovered from the impact of its recent profits warning.

Also in the retail sector, Iceland-to-Booker group Big Food was in the red after saying fierce competition in the retail sector led to a continuing decline in sales. Shares in the FTSE 250 stock dropped 2.75p to 86.25p

Those dragging the top flight down included oil giants BP and Shell as the price of a barrel of crude fell back below the 40 US dollar mark in New York. BP was off 6.5p to 490.5p, while Shell slipped 2p to 401.5p.

Back outside the top flight, easyJet shares lost height after founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou dismissed reports he was about to take the company private. Shares weakened 6.5p to 143.5p.

In contrast, property company Minerva saw its share price rocket 30%, or 77.75p to 323.5p, after confirming it had received a takeover approach.

And shares in set-top box maker Pace Micro surged nearly 21%, up 10p to 58p, after the group confirmed a return to the black.

Biggest winners included Morrisons, up 5p to 196p, Yell Group climbing 5.5p to 343.25p, ITV lifting 1.25p to 108.5p and Tomkins advancing 2.5p to 257.5p.

Largest losers included Alliance Unichem, down 27.5p to 662.5p, Schroders NV off 19.5p to 523.5p, Man Group falling 47p to 1435p and WPP Group retreating 11p to 518p.