There’s less than two days of trading left if the FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) is to avoid its sixth losing week in a row, and things are not looking good. So far today the index of top UK shares is down another 38 points to 6,470, taking it down 82 points on the week — it’s now fallen 350 points (5.1%) from a recent high of 6,820 on 30 October.
Which individual shares are doing even worse today? Here are three from the various indices having a poor morning:
Sports Direct International
Sports Direct International (LSE: SPD) shares fell back 28p (3.6%) to 743p, despite a recent rise in anticipation of this morning’s first-half results. And they were good, described as “ahead of management’s expectations“, so it looks like there’s some profit-taking going on.
Total revenue for the period grew by 23.5% to £1,341m, with underlying pre-tax profit up 16.9% to £146.2m and underlying earnings per share (EPS) up 18.3% to 18.99p.
The firm has decided not to resume paying a dividend just yet, although the City is predicting a small payment for the full year, so that might have disappointed a few.
John Wood
A pre-close update ahead of year-end figures led to a 77p (9.7%) price fall for Wood Group, despite the announcement sounding positive.
The oil & gas engineering firm told us that it is “confident of achieving performance for the year in line with expectations“, and that it is on target to deliver the 10-15% EBITDA growth previously indicated.
The only negative was the expectation that the firm’s Wood Group GTS division should see EBITDA in 2013 below 2012’s figure, partly due to some contract deferrals.
Supergroup
Supergroup (LSE: SGP) shares soared during the summer, leading to a more-than-doubling over the past 12 months. But the price suffered a 63p (5%) setback this morning, even though the Superdry brand owner released first half results headlined “Progress on all fronts“.
Revenue for the six months to 27 October was up 21.4% to £192.1m and underlying pre-tax profit climbed 21.8% to £17.9m, with underlying EPS up 29.3% to 16.3p.
But without adjustment for exceptionals, reported pre-tax profit fell 28.8% to £9.9m and reported EPS dropped 72.9% to 2.6p.
