AMEC plc (LON: AMEC), Rio Tinto plc (LON: RIO) and Carnival plc (LON: CCL) all dip.
The FTSE 100 has been pushed downwards by falls in some of its biggest constituents today, dropping 43 points to 6,316 at the time of writing. And news that the economies of France and Germany shrank in the final three months of the year, by 0.3% and 0.6% respectively, didn't help.
So which companies are dragging the FTSE 100 down? Here are three of the day's biggest fallers:
AMEC
Engineering services and consultancy firm AMEC (LSE: AMEC) announced a 20% rise in its dividend today, but the share price still fell by 69p (6.1%) to 1,055p. Revenue for the year to December rose 28% to £4.16 billion. But underlying revenue managed a 21% rise, and when £320 million of incremental procurement is excluded, that drops to 12%.
Pre-tax profit only grew by 2% to £263 million, but adjusted earnings per share came in at 80.4p, up 14%, enabling that 20% lift in the dividend to 36.5p per share.
Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) (NYSE: RIO.US) also raised its dividend today, and also saw its share price fall. This time we saw an 18% rise in the company's annual payout, followed by a 61p (1.6%) price fall to 3,696p. But revenues fell by $10 billion to $50 billion, with underlying earnings falling by $6 billion to $9 billion. The dividend, of 106.77p per share, represents a yield of 2.9% on the latest price.
A fall in earnings was expected by analysts, who have a return to growth pencilled in for the current year. Today's results put Rio Tinto shares on a P/E of around 12, but forecasts show that dropping to under 10 for next December.
Carnival
After reaching a new 52-week high yesterday, shares in cruise operator Carnival (LSE: CCL) dropped 77p (3%) today to 2,498p. The cause was a warning issued after the close of markets yesterday that "voyage disruptions and related repair costs" would impact first-half earnings by between 8 and 10 cents per share.
There has already been one broker downgrade as a result, so we'll need to see how a new consensus develops.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
