Investor Jitters Hold FTSE 100 Down
The decision to tighten reserve requirements for commercial banks in China, anxiety over the earnings season in the U.S. and disappointing manufacturing figures in the U.K. conspired to drag down the FTSE 100 index on Wednesday morning with oil and banking stocks the worst sufferers. By midday the leading share index was down 24.12 points, or 0.4%, at 5,474.59 compounding losses from the previous session when it closed down 0.7% at 5,498.71.
Dominic Turner
shareprices.com - Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Crude oil slipped below $80 a barrel putting pressure on oil majors for the second session in a row. Royal Dutch Shell was down 1.8% after rumours that it had decreased its earnings guidance for the fourth quarter and a downgrade to "underweight" from "equal weight" from Morgan Stanley. Shell was joined on the losers' board by BP, Cairn Energy and Tullow Oil, which were all down by between 0.8% and 1%. BG Group bucked the trend, however, rising 0.85% after HSBC raised its target price for the stock from 1,330p to 1,455p.
Speaking of HSBC, the bank was one of the sufferers after French bank Société Générale issued a profit warning for the banking sector and news of a potential levy on banks by the U.S. government. HSBC, Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group were all down by between 0.4% and 1.16%.
Elsewhere, Kraft Foods increased its earnings guidance for 2009 as it continued its pursuit of Cadbury, but newspaper reports suggested that a rumoured joint bid, by Italian and American confectioners Ferrero and Hershey, would not happen after all. Cadbury's share price rose 3.50p, or 0.45%, to 780.50p.
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