FTSE 100 live: London sinks into the red as shares in St James’s Place crash
Shares in St James Place plummeted after it slashed its dividend and warned that costs connected to complaints would be a drag on growth in the coming year.
London’s FTSE 100 fell into the red on Wednesday as poor results from a number of firms weighed on the index, while concerns over China also spilled over.
The blue-chip index was trading 0.66 per cent lower at 7,632.57 while the FTSE 250, which is more aligned with the health of the domestic economy, shed 0.50 per cent to trade at 19,068.07.
Shares in St James’s Place plummeted after it slashed its dividend and warned that costs connected to complaints would be a drag on growth in the coming year.
The firm’s notched a cash results of £68.7m last year, a sharp fall from the £410.1m notched in 2022, which bosses said had been “significantly impacted” by an assessment into its service and provisions to settle a slew of historic complaints.
It was trading nearly 30 per cent lower in early trade.
Analysts at Numis said that opportunities in the sector remained, but “we increasingly have to question how well will SJP monetize that opportunity”.
Reckitt also fell over 11 per cent. The firm missed expectations for sales in the fourth quarter due to declining sales of cold and flu products.
Kris Licht, chief executive officer, said: “While our performance in Q4 was unsatisfactory, we look to 2024 and beyond with confidence.”
“The cost-of-living crisis has forced consumers to make cutbacks, and Reckitt, like their peers, have seen customers trading down to store brand alternatives,” Mark Crouch, analyst at investment platform eToro, said.
Shares in Vodafone eked out some gains after it confirmed it was offloading its Italian arm in a multi-billion deal.
The struggling telecoms firm is being shrunk by new CEO Margherita Della Valle, who marked her first results call with the City last year by admitting the firm’s performance had not been good enough.
Markets were also shaken after Country Garden was hit by a winding up petition from a creditor. The first hearing date has been set for 17 May. Country Garden said that it will “resolutely oppose” the petition.
“The development threatens to reignite concerns about the fragility of the sector and cast doubt on efforts made by authorities to shore it up and stop contagion,” Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown said.
Its been a quiet week for markets so far, with few major data releases to generate significant market moves.
Analysts at Deutsche Bank said its been “a bit of a crawl…as we await the all-important core PCE print tomorrow”.
