FTSE slips as eurozone fears heighten

The top share index in the UK endured another rocky ride on Wednesday as investors kept one eye on events in Europe which seems unable to shake free of its debt woes. By the end of the session, the FTSE 100 was lower by 0.2 per cent, dropping around 8 points to reach 5509.

Chris Bradshaw
shareprices.com - Wednesday, November 16, 2011

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The blue chip index swung between 5562 and 5450 moved lower after Sir Mervyn King warned that the British economy is unlikely to see any signs of recovery until the middle of next year at the earliest. This result was compounded by poor jobs data from the UK and follows hot on the heels of news that the yield on Italian bonds remains unsustainably high at over 7 per cent.

The retail sector was the industry in the doldrums on Wednesday with news from Debenhams that it will slash prices by up to 40% in a Christmas sell-off unable to stir investors into a more positive frame of mind. The department store ended lower by 3.33 per cent whilst peers Marks and Spencers and Home Retail Group also dropped by 2.34 and 7.51 per cent.

However, the biggest name of the high street to feel the most pain was Game Group, which slid by a devastating 46.05 per cent after it announced that its year-end profits would fail to hit targets predicted in September.

At the top of the table, quality assurance firm Intertek moved into the driving seat with a gain of 3.50 per cent. The climb was triggered by the company reporting that it achieved 8% growth for the first 10 months of 2011, on target for what it predicted it would achieve two months previously.

 

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