UK stocks post modest declines in early trade on Monday as investors react to a worse-than-anticipated report on Chinese manufacturing. That fuels ongoing concerns about the slowdown in the world's second largest economy. The FTSE 100 dipped around 8 points lower in response to 6,351, although midcaps and smaller companies are both up, the FTSE 250 close to 30 points higher at 17,146, the FTSE...

London's blue-chip benchmark, which has had a storming start to 2013, was off 5.9 points at 6,717.2 by lunchtime on Monday, a session in which bus and train operator FirstGroup (FGP) proved one of the market heaviest fallers.Shares in the Aberdeen-based transport group shed 20% to 179p after it announced proposals for a £615 million rights issue at a hefty discount in a bid to reduce its...

The re-rating enjoyed by the pride of British electronic and electrical engineering excellence appears to be coming to a juddering halt if recent market action is any guide. The Electronic & Electrical Equipment sector has chalked up a solid 7.4% gain in the year to date, but this has badly lagged the 12.7% advance recorded by the FTSE All-Share. That in itself is a far cry from last year,...