London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.4% at 7,299.93 in afternoon trade on Wednesday.
Spirax-Sarco slumped as it flagged supply issues but maintained its overall guidance.
SSE was in the red even as the energy company reported a rise in interim profit as its gas storage operation helped to offset a fall in renewables earnings. The company also announced an investment of £12.5bn in renewables, funded by the sale of a 25% stake in its electricity grid assets, which it plans to use over the next five years.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: “The company has been under pressure from activist investor Elliott Investment to spin off its renewables business to improve value to shareholders, however management have pushed back on that, saying that there needs to be an element of crossover between the businesses. This may well have prompted some disappointment, in what could be construed as a halfway house process.”
Experian was weaker despite upgrading its full-year guidance as the consumer data group reported strong growth in a first half boosted by markets reopening from the pandemic.
British Airways and Iberia parent IAG was knocked lower by a downgrade at Exane.
On the upside, Sage was the top gainer even as the software group said annual operating profits fell 10% as margins were squeezed.
Lloyds was on the rise amid expectations the Bank of England will hike interest rates after the latest inflation data. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said the banking sector should be a beneficiary of rising interest rates.
“It creates scope for them to increase net interest margins which is the difference between the interest they earn on loans and the interest they pay on savings deposits,” he said.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Sage Group (SGE) 794.60p 9.00%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,453.00p 2.74%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,496.00p 2.12%
Glencore (GLEN) 369.20p 1.51%
Darktrace (DARK) 552.00p 1.47%
Entain (ENT) 1,997.50p 1.32%
WPP (WPP) 1,117.00p 1.32%
Rightmove (RMV) 744.00p 1.31%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,878.50p 1.30%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 50.53p 1.12%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 16,200.00p -4.73%
SSE (SSE) 1,587.50p -4.25%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 6,842.00p -3.55%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 113.74p -3.54%
Experian (EXPN) 3,399.00p -3.22%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,496.00p -2.45%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 156.46p -2.26%
Smurfit Kappa Group (CDI) (SKG) 3,892.00p -1.94%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,524.00p -1.90%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,291.00p -1.76%
