The FTSE 100 takes its cue from Wall Street and Asian markets falling 23 points to 7,362.52 on opening. Miners such as Antofagasta (ANTO) have been hit by a fall in copper prices with the company shedding 1.4% to 872.50p.
Retail property company Hammerson (HMSO) sheds 3.3% to 517p after announcing plans for a retail property mega merger with Intu Properties (INTU). Intu is up 19% to 236.8p on the news. You can read more on the deal here.
Budget airline Easyjet (EZJ) gets a 1.3% lift to £14.45 after releasing figures showing that its passenger figures for November are 8.1% on a year-on-year basis. The airline carried 5,350,245 passengers during the month.
Insurance firm Saga (SAGA) shares plummet 24.9% to 136.20p after releasing a profit warning. The comapny's underlying pre-tax profit growth is expected to be between 1% and 2% due to a more challenging trading environment in insurance brokering. Monarch Airlines going into adminiustration has also impacted the company's tour operations business.
Insurance giant Legal & General (LGEN) dips 1% to 261.35p on news that it is selling its mature savings business to Swiss Re for £650m. The company’s chief executive Nigel Wilson described the move as ‘a difficult decision’.
Transport provider Stagecoach (SGC) is up 2% to 180.70p on revealing a rise in pre-tax profits to £96.7m, bettering its half year to 28 October results for 2016 which came in at £89.5m. The company’s revenue per vehicle is up 2.7% and has also enjoyed improved revenue trends in North America.
Defence company Avon Rubber (AVON) sees a 1.4% hike to £12 after announcing an order worth $14.3m from the US Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD has ordered 53,000 M50 masks from the company which secures the sale of the product to the US military for the company’s 2018 financial year.
Marine services outfit James Fisher & Sons (FSJ) dips 1.3% to £14.92 after acquiring engineering services to the renewable industy company EDS HV. The deal cost James Fisher £9m in cash with potential further consideration of up to £5.6m subject to the target hitting profit targets for the two years ending 30 September 2019.
Intellectual property and language support services company RWS (RWS) gains 1.1% to 436.13p on release of its full year results to 30 September. Its sales increased 34.4% to £164m with 8% of the increase coming from organic growth excluding acquisitions and currency movements.
Publishing house Johnson Press (JPR) gains 7% to 13.38p after announcing that the i newspaper is now trading in line with its plans. The paper’s EBITDA is averaging £1m a month for September, October and November.
On AIM, payment processing minnow Billing Services (BILL:AIM) gains 15.8% to 2.75p on announcing a share buy-back programme worth $5m. The company is planning to redeem 41.7% of its outstanding shares.
