Marston's PLC (LON: MARS), Optos Plc (LON: OPTS) and Bumi PLC (LON: BUMI) all fall back today.
The FTSE 100 is storming ahead again this week, having hit a new 52-week high yet again today, of 6,184 points. It's since dropped back to 6,175, down six on the day, but I'm not betting against the index hitting 6,200 points before long.
Further news from Japan of a planned new quantitative easing programme and an attempt to put deflation firmly in the past has boosted optimism a little, though Asian markets are responding only modestly.
But while the FTSE indices are doing well, the same cannot be said for all their constituents. Here are three companies whose prices are falling today:
Marston's
Shares in Marston's (LSE: MARS) slipped back 2.1p (1.6%) to 132p on the release of an interim management statement for the 16 weeks to 19 January. The company said it was encouraged by its Christmas and New Year trading period, and says profitability is in line with expectations. Like-for-like sales were 1.2% ahead of the same period last year, though the final week was impacted by the effects of snow. Profit for the period should be around 2% up.
After a strong recent rise, the shares are nearly 40% up over the past 12 months, with forecasts for 2013 putting them on a P/E of around 10. There's also a dividend of close to 5% expected.
Optos
Shares in Optos (LSE: OPTS), the medical imaging specialist, slipped 11.7p (6%) to 184p on the back of a first-quarter update for the three months to December. Headline revenue was down 4% to $40.3 million, though the firm reckons that underlying revenue (which it arrived at by restating finance lease revenue as if it was operating lease revenue, apparently) was up 18%.
It hasn't been a great year for Optos shares, with the price down around 15% from 12 months ago, but it's still early days, and the shares are on a forward price-to-earnings ratio of only around 12 -- and decent forecasts for 2014 drop that to 10.
Bumi
Coal miner Bumi (LSE: BUMI) has been under investigation at its PT Bumi Resources division in Indonesia by an independent team appointed by its Audit Committee, in order to look at into claims of financial and other irregularities.
We got an update on the investigation, which was carried out by Macfarlanes, today, and the share price dropped 11.4p (3.4%) to 320p in response. Apparently, there is circumstantial evidence to support some of the allegations, but key parties have been unwilling to be interviewed and it cannot be confirmed. The company is also unable to release details of the report due to "unacceptable legal risks". There's nothing like transparency when it comes to corporate governance, eh?
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
