The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) looks to be heading for its fifth winning session in a row, and its third this week, having reached a new five-month high of 6,820 points this morning. By just after midday it had slipped back a few points from that to 6,805, which is only 71 points short of May’s 13-year record of 6,876.
But though the FTSE was boosted by nice rises from some of its top constituents, not everyone is having a good day — here are three from the indices that are slipping back:
Standard Life
Life insurer Standard Life shares took a 14p (3.8%) dive today to 355p, despite a 9% rise in assets under administration to £237.6bn in its third quarter after a net inflow of £7.7bn, together with a 15% rise in fee-based revenue to £1,059m. The problem is, these figures came in slightly below analysts’ forecasts, and markets these days do tend to expect things to be better than expected.
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But even after that fall, the shares are still up close to 30% over the past 12 months, easily beating the FTSE, and there’s a better-than-expected dividend yield of 4.3% predicted.
Pearson
Shares in Pearson took a tumble after the publishing giant’s nine-month update told us that adjusted operating profit for the full year should be lower than 2012, due to the costs of the Penguin Random House merger and to a weak North American education market — by midday, the price was down 37p (2.7%) to 1,328p.
But other than that, things seem to be broadly following earlier expectations. Full-year adjusted earnings per share should be about the same as last year’s 82.6p, which reiterated Pearson’s earlier guidance and is in line City predictions. Full-year restructuring costs should be approximately £150m, lowered to £100m after expected cost savings.
NMC Health
Looking to the FTSE 250 now, NMC Health (LSE: NMC) shares suffered a 12p (3.3%) fall to 355p despite a positive-looking third-quarter update. For the three months to 30 September, the United Arab Emirates private health firm saw total revenue up 10.6% to $136.5m, after bed capacity rose 13.5% with occupancy levels rising to 60.2% from 59.4% a year previously.
Net debt has reached $66.7m, but that was in line with expectations.
Despite today’s fall, the share price has still doubled over the past 12 months, putting the shares on a forward P/E of 16 based on full-year forecasts.
