Bright day for pharma in otherwise sombre market testing 5,400

This morning investors moved into defensive stocks including Britain's top pharmaceutical companies as worries about the US Federal Reserve's policy meeting and China's upcoming inflation data spook investors. The FTSE 100 index moved down substantially early morning, testing 5,400 later in the day. By 12:30 BST the index was at 5,392, down 0.34 per cent.

Chris Bradshaw
shareprices.com - Tuesday, August 10, 2010

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GlaxoSmithKline

On the up side GlaxoSmithKline gained 1.6 per cent in morning trading, Shire Plc is up 1.56 per cent and AstraZeneca is up 1.23 per cent. Technology company Smiths Group is up 1.42 per cent after positive comments from UBS.

Mining stocks are leading the broad downwards march of FTSE 100 stocks. Antofagasta, Xstrata, Eurasian Natural Resources, Kazakhmys and BHP Billiton all lost between 2.7 and 2.0 per cent in morning trading.

TUI Travel released a statement saying that annual profits will come in at the bottom of analyst expectations; the stock was dumped by investors this morning, now trading down 9.3 per cent at 204.70p. According to TUI Travel cuts in government spending have a substantial impact.

Intercontinental Hotels is down 4.6 per cent, despite a reported 22 per cent increase in interim profit, the company said the economic environment was "uncertain".

Investors are waiting for a statement from the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting. Whilst there is virtual certainty that the US central bank will keep its interest rate at record lows there are expectations are that it may downgrade its growth expectations.

 

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