London on course for negative end-of-week finish

Jitters over the impact of the weak dollar on the prospects of major UK companies left the London market on course for a negative end to the week today.

With the US dollar weakening further overnight, the FTSE 100 Index fell 23.5 points to 4729.9 by mid-morning.

Companies with strong sales in the United States bore the brunt with British American Tobacco down 5p at 875.5p, GlaxoSmithKline off 5p at 1130p and AstraZeneca falling 23p to 2064p.

The market’s lacklustre performance also reflected the absence of major corporate news, as well as the Thanksgiving holiday in the US yesterday.

Other fallers included Tesco – down 4p to 304.75p as the supermarket group gave back some of the post-results surge that sent its shares to record highs yesterday. Rival Morrisons was also stuck in the red, off 0.75p to 233p, despite topping the Footsie risers board earlier in the session.

A raft of financial companies were in negative territory, including Royal Bank of Scotland off 16p to 1612p, Barclays weakening 5p to 540p and HBOS down 6p to 730p.

Among those making gains, steel group Corus added half a penny to 55.25p after it benefited from further reports of worldwide supply shortages.

On the results front, beer company Fuller Smith and Turner struggled to make headway despite a healthy lift in profits at its London Pride operation. The stock slipped 18.5p to 717.5p in early trading.

Also in the lower tiers, online auction company QXL Ricardo rocketed 42% after agreeing to be taken private by its management team in a deal worth £11.9m (€17m). Shares moved towards the offer price of 700p per share, up 201.5p to 679p.

Shares in Glenmorangie were unchanged at 1685p as investors looked beyond a 19% hike in profits to the likelihood that its takeover will be completed in December.