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Britain's blue chips lower at lunch; Next biggest faller

Published: 22:50 30 Sep 2014 AEST

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FTSE100 was slipping at the midday point with British fashion chain Next (LON:NXT) taking a pummelling.

Shares were down almost 4.88% making the clothing firm the biggest laggard on the blue chip  index as it revealed the warm weather meant sales growth had been slower than previously expected at 6% rather than the 10% previously forecast.

A colder August resulted in more in shoppers hitting the store, however the unexpected warm weather the following month kept punters away as they basked in the last rays of the summer.

The fashion chain kept financial forecasts for the full year unchanged as it may make up lost sales, but it warned if the warm snap continues throughout October full year profit guidance may be lowered from the current £775mln to £815mln.

Also in losers row was fellow retailer Marks and Spencers (LON:MKS), which dropped 2.5%, and chip designer ARM holdings (LON:ARM), which shed 2.11%.

Overall Footsie is at 6,627 - down over 18 points.

On the other side of the coin, state-owned bank Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) was on the rise today - up 2.08% as it said it expects full-year impairments to be much lower than the £1bn hit for which the company had been bracing itself.

The lender said the third quarter had seen a continued improvement in economic conditions and asset prices in its key markets, including Ireland, where the Ulster Bank has been hamstrung by the collapse of the property market.

Its shares were among the top five risers.

Also in focus, and denting sentiment, are eurozone stats which showed a drop in the rate of inflation to a five-year low, which sent the  Euro currency lower.

In what was a very busy day for corporate results from from the small caps, Amur Minerals (LON:AMC) lifted over 10%.

It remains confident it will be awarded a production licence for its Kun-Manie nickel project in Far East Russia.

Obtaining a licence, alongside updating the 2007 pre-feasibility and further exploration of the huge deposit are the priorities going forward, it said.

A production licence would allow Amur to move to the next stage of development of Kun-Manie, it said.

Meaqnwhile, innvestors in Tunisia focussed Independent Resources (LON:IRG) welcomed today’s interim results statement with a 23% rise in the share price.

Many investors may yet have some catching up to do given the truly transformational developments of recent months.

Long awaited government approval came in August for the Ksar Hadada project giving the AIM oil company operatorship and a substantially increased stake in the asset – it now has 86.345% rather than 19%.

It also gave IRG until April 2016 to complete exploration and development commitments.

Shares in FTSE AIM All share added 1.02 points, while FTSE AIM 100 was up 11.15.

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