The FTSE 100 starts Friday in a subdued state amid mixed corporate news and ahead of the release of US GDP data later. In early trading the index is down 23.68 points at 7,410.45.
Lender Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) slumps 4.5% as it books a fall in first-quarter profit and delivers a soft warning on its annual guidance, a day after announcing chief executive Ross McEwan was leaving.
Food delivery company Just Eat (JE.) falls 3.2%, as investors look past a 28% jump in first-quarter revenue and focused on slowing order growth in the company's key UK market.
Global advertising giant WPP (WPP) edges up 0.4% on the back of a modest rise in first-quarter revenue driven by foreign exchange gains. Sales, however, fell 2.8% at an underlying level due to client losses in the US.
Former WPP boss Martin Sorrell's new advertising company S4 Capital (SFOR) gains 2.4% after acquiring Amsterdam-based Caramel Pictures and Sao Paulo-based ProgMedia, for undisclosed sums.
British insurance provider Hastings (HSTG) slumps 8.9% after its first-quarter revenue slipped amid higher claims costs.
Computer services provider Computacenter (CCC) is having a better morning. Its shares soar 12% after a strong performance in France during the first quarter helps inspire confidence in its full-year guidance.
Educational publisher Pearson (PSON), meanwhile, falls 1% even as it announces that its underlying sales had grown by 2% in the first quarter, while reiterating its annual earnings guidance.
Pharmaceuticals company AstraZeneca (AZN) ticks up 0.2% as it more than doubles pre-tax profit in the first quarter and sticks to its full-year guidance.
Flow control and instrumentation company Rotork (ROR) falls 0.6% as it announces it expects to achieve 'modest' sales growth in 2019, weighted to the second half.
Drug developer ReNeuron (RENE:AIM) rallies 18% after it records positive results from a clinical trial of a treatment for the blindness-causing disease retinitis pigmentosa.
