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FTSE 100 sees its advance stall as Nasdaq bounces back
StockMarketWire.com
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The FTSE 100 closed Tuesday with a 0.35% gain to 6,742.96, off its highs for the day but still consolidating Monday's big gains amid improved investor sentiment.
In the US the Nasdaq index bounced back sharply as tech stocks returned to favour following the recent sell-off. By 4.30pm UK time the index was up 3.3% to 13,046.50.
Investment company Standard Life Aberdeen fell 7.5% to 295.1p as it cut its dividend by a third as full year numbers showed falling profit and a shrinking client base.
Telecom group Vodafone was up 1.6% to 128.1p after setting a price range for the initial public offering of its Vantage Towers infrastructure business that would value it at between €11.4 billion and €14.7 billion.
The indicative price range was set at €22.50-to-€29.00 per share, with a base offer size of €2.0 billion, with flexibility to upsize €2.8 billion.
Broadcaster ITV reversed earlier losses to trade 3.1% higher at 126p, having reported a 39% dive in annual pre-tax profit amid a 'challenging' advertising environment.
The share-price fall came despite ITV saying its annual performance was nevertheless ahead of expectations, driven by a strong end to the fourth quarter and cost cuts.
Pizza chain Domino's Pizza jumped 7.9% to 335p after its profits rose and it announced a £45 million share buyback.
Domino's said its profit was boosted by strength in its delivery business more than offsetting pandemic-led weakness for in-store collections.
Defence contractor Ultra Electronics firmed 6% to £21.06, having booked a 14% rise in annual profit as it won new contracts, including for supplying radios to the US Navy and orders for sonobuoy and torpedo arrays.
Ultra Electronics declared a full-year dividend of 56.9p per share, up 5% year-on-year.
Oil company Cairn Energy dropped 2.9% to 192.9p as it booked a full-year net loss of $393.8 million owing to lower oil prices.
Cairn also announced that it was acquiring assets in Egypt from Shell with consortium partner Cheiron, while selling its interests in the UK Catcher and Kraken fields to Waldorf Production.
Book and convenience store retailer WH Smith gained 1.5% to £19.33 on announcing that it was burning through less cash than feared after its high-street business performed better than hoped in January and February.
WH Smith also announced that it had extended the maturity of two existing £200 million term loans to October 2023 and agreed new minimum liquidity covenants.
Office operator IWG slumped 4.7% to 363.4p as it swung to a £650.2 million annual loss while the pandemic kept workers at home.
IWG said it expected challenging market conditions to prevail 'for a few months to come'.
Aviation services group John Menzies climbed 3.2% to 241.5p despite swinging to a deep annual loss after the pandemic hammered the travel sector.
John Menzies said it anticipated a slow increase in volumes through the second quarter of 2021 with a stronger recovery during the second half, though it didn't see a return to 2019 volumes before 2023. Story provided by StockMarketWire.com
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