London down as sugar group slips

Sugar group Tate & Lyle led the London market lower today as traders fretted over comments about its outlook.

The stock was the heaviest FTSE 100 Index faller – off nearly 5% or 21.5p to 463.5p – as stronger-than-expected annual results were offset by a warning that future figures would be affected by higher factory start-up costs.

This contributed to the Footsie falling back towards the 5,000 mark that it breached yesterday, 1.2 points lower at 5009.8 by mid-morning.

A positive outcome of trading in New York last night helped prevent the London market slipping further into the red, although the Dow Jones Industrial Average was tipped to open slightly lower today.

Among companies reporting today, Johnson Matthey shares surged 3% or 32p to 1016p as the speciality chemicals company said it viewed prospects as encouraging. The group was the highest top-flight climber.

Diageo added a penny to 794.5p after confirming it had expressed interest in funding one of the companies vying to take over Allied Domecq.

Oil giants Shell and BP were also doing their best to prop up the Footsie despite a slight fall in the cost of oil, both adding 2.5p to 564.5 and 489p respectively. The cost of a barrel of crude oil still remained above $54 in New York after significant overnight gains.

Smaller exploration company Cairn moved in the opposite direction, easing 19p to 1247p.

Utility firms were also in focus, with Footsie water and energy group United Utilities unchanged at 678.5p despite reporting a 10% rise in annual profits to £370m (€547.7m) and saying it had identified “immediate opportunities” to save cash from an acquisition.

Outside the top flight, Anglian Water owner AWG’s announcement of a 6% rise in profits for its regulated business failed to cheer investors. Its stock weakened a penny to 904p.