It seems the FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) just can’t keep up the optimism. After a 39-point rise yesterday, it’s already lost about half of that so far today, dropping 20 points to 6,603 by late morning. The drop in Lloyds shares didn’t help, and nor did a fall back for the mining sector in response to broker downgrades.
Which companies are faring worse than average today? Here are three from the various indices on the way down:
Lloyds Banking Group
You can hardly have missed the news this morning that the government has sold a stake in Lloyds Banking Group. The sale to institutional investors, of 6% of the bank for £3.2bn, represents a share rice of 75p — and today the price has responded by falling 1.6p (2.1%) to 75.7p.
At the time of the bailout, few would have thought there’d be any profit in it for taxpayers. But with the rescue price averaging 73.6p per share, we’ve netted a gain of £600m on the deal so far. And there’s still 32.7% of the bank in public hands.
Domino Printing Sciences
An interim update from Domino Printing Sciences (LSE: DNO) failed to impress, and the shares dropped 13.5p (2%) 660p, even though things sounded generally positive.
For the 10 months to August, sales were up 7% overall, with core business sales up 5%. Equipment sales rose 6%, and the firm told us “We are pleased with progress in sales of our newer printers, including Continuous Ink Jet and our thermal products“.
The source of the caution, however, seems to be the firm’s telling us that market conditions across Europe are “difficult”, leading to sales growth in low single digits in the region.
Imagination Technologies Group
Imagination Technologies Group (LSE: IMG) is our third faller for today, losing 9p (2.6%) to 335p, again after the release of an interim update — and again, it wasn’t a bad one.
The technology-licensing firm told us that “momentum in the business has continued“, with strong royalty revenue growth in line with expectations. Current guidance of licensing revenue of £30-35m was reiterated.
Despite a price fall of more than 35% over the past 12 months, the shares are still on a relatively high forward P/E of about 28, which is twice the FTSE average.
