ARM Holding plc, IG Group Holdings plc and IGAS Energy PLC are all falling.
The FTSE 100 (UKX) is down a bit as I write, having given up 15 points of its recent rises to drop back to 6,093.
Fears expressed by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke that the US might hit its debt ceiling before the end of February dampened otherwise optimistic news of further easing in Japan aimed at boosting that country's economy.
The FTSE 100 is still pretty strong, but there are a few of its constituents that are not doing so well. We look at three that are falling today:
IG
Interim results sent shares in IG Group Holdings (LSE: IGG) down 8.5p (1.8%) to 459p. The spread-betting firm told us that pre-tax profit for the six months to 30 November was down 21% to £81.1 million, from revenues that fell 14% at £169 million. That might be a disappointing fall, but it's better than it was looking earlier -- we had a 24p (5%) fall in early trading, and there's been a bit of a recovery later in the day.
What IG Group needs to attract spread-betters is volatile markets, and the firm told us today that it had experience "the longest sustained period of low volatility for over five years", compared to very volatile markets a year ago.
IGas
IGas Energy (LSE: IGAS) shares dropped 8.75p (7.6%) to 106.5p on the announcement of a placement of up to 24.3 million new shares. The new placement, at a price of 95p, amounts to approximately 15% of the current share capital.
IGas, which develops and produces oil and gas in the UK from onshore reserves in the northwest of the country, sees new opportunities in the oil shale business now that the government has lifted restrictions. Despite today's fall, the shares have still just about doubled in price this year.
ARM
ARM Holdings (LSE: ARM) (NASDAQ: ARMH.US), perhaps surprisingly, is the biggest FTSE 100 faller today, with its shares down 41p (4.4%) to 834p. There is no news today, and the fall is probably due to some profit-taking after the shares have soared since the start of 2013 -- the price reached a record 875p to take it up 11% on the year so far, before falling back to today's price.
That's a pretty massive rise for shares that are already highly valued. Although there is certainly a big future market in mobile computing for ARM's designs, the shares are currently on a P/E ratio of an eye-watering 60 based on 2012 estimates, and forecasts for 2013 only take it down to 50 -- the long-term FTSE 100 average is around 14.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
