UK equities down on light trading volume

The London equities markets were down on Tuesday amid a fairly light 2.7 billion shares traded. The FTSE 100 was down by 0.7 percent to 5,338.0, while the FTSE 250 dropped 0.9 percent to 7833.3.

The biggest gainer of the day was Rentokil Initial, which was up 2.5 percent to 167p on continuing speculation as to whether Sir Gerry Robinson would be successful in his pursuit of the company.

The day’s biggest loser, at least among blue-chip stocks, was medical devices manufacturer Smith & Nephew, which fell 6.4 percent to 509p on the announcement that sales during the summer had not been up to expectations.

S&N blamed competition from US companies and Hurricane Katrina for this as it scaled back its predictions for sales in orthopedics and wound management. The placing of shares by companies in the banking and retail sectors led to losses.

Lloyds TSB lost 1.2 percent to 474½p, while RBS was down 1 percent to £16.12, while in the retail sector Marks & Spencer declined by 1.6 percent to 348p as Morgan Stanley placed 23 million of its shares at 348½p.

Among the mid-caps, aerospace and defence group Cobham added 10.3 percent to 158p as it sold its fluids business and said it would sell its countermeasures business, which has not been performing well, in order to be able to invest in leading technology areas. Also helping Cobham’s gains was its announcement of interim profits that exceeded expectations.

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