Footsie was making a valiant effort to pick itself off the floor after another weak opening following heavy falls overnight on global markets.
Its cause was not helped by Burberry (LON:BRBY), the fashion brand, which disappointed with a first half trading update.
The shares were off more than 5% as the company said the external environment is becoming more difficult, though things are getting a bit easier on the foreign exchange front.
Burberry was the biggest faller on the Footsie early on, though Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HL.), down almost 3%, was not far behind after its interim management statement.
The stockbroker and wealth manager boasted of a record level of assets under administration at £47.0bn at the end of September, up £0.1bn from the end of June.
Net revenue in the quarter edged up to £70.8mln from £70.1mln in the same quarter of last year, which the company indicated was a good result in challenging investment conditions.
The FTSE 100 index was down 16 points at 6,350, with just over two-thirds of the index’s constituents on the slide.
Pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) and airline IAG (LON:IAG) were among the happy band of blue-chips defying the trend, thanks to broker comment.
Astra, up 0.9%, has been upgraded to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ by Merrill Lynch while IAG, up 0.2%, is now rated ‘overweight’ by HSBC, which was previously neutral on the stock.
In the mid-cap space, Bellway (LON:BWY) was wanted, rising 2.2% on its final results, which revealed a 33.8% increase in revenue and a 74.5% rise in profit before tax.
It has not been a good day for luxury fashion brands, with both Burberry and Mulberry (LON:MUL) getting buried – or berried. Mulberry shed almost a quarter of its value after it said the first half of its financial year had been even tougher than expected because of what it termed “continuing headwinds affecting the luxury sector”.
The best performing stock was Allocate Software (LON:ALL), the roster management software company, after management backed a private equity buy-out on the basis of 153.55p per share.
The deal represents a 35.3% premium to last night’s closing price and a 37.3% uplift compared with the 12-month average share price.
Shares rose just over one-third to 152.5p.
Global Energy (LON:GED) advanced 28% to 50p on the proposed sale of the rights and obligations of the company's contract areas within the Llanos Basin for a gross consideration of US$50 million in cash.
Anglo Pacific Group (LON:APF) soared like a bird after updating on Kestrel, the company’s main producing royalty.
Shares added one-tenth to their value as the company revealed royalty income is expected to be significantly higher than previously assumed. Royalty income had previously been expected to be negligible, whereas now the company expects around 22% of production from Kestrel n the first half of next year will be within the company’s royalty lands.
The acquisition of an interest in the Kiliwani gas field boosted Solo Oil (LO:SOLO) 9.2%. Initially, Solo (LON:SOLO) will acquire a 6.5% interest in KNDL from Aminex's (LON:AEX) wholly-owned subsidiary Ndovu Resources for US$3.5 mln with a 45-day option to buy a further 6.5%.