The US budget deal didn’t help the FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) today, with London’s top index losing 13 points by early afternoon to stand at 6,558. It’s the temporary nature of the deal that’s caused the disappointment, with the world now braced for the fight to kick off all over again when the latest agreement expires in February.
Individual shares have been suffering due to news of their own. Here are three from the FTSE indices that are on the way down:
Travis Perkins
Travis Perkins (LSE: TPK) shares fell 35p (2%) to 1,743p, despite a third-quarter update telling us of “encouraging sales momentum in the third quarter“. Total sales gained 8.6%, though using a comparable-trading-day basis, that drops a little to 7.1%. Like-for-like sales were up 6.3%.
Current forecasts suggest earnings per share (EPS) for the full year of 10p, and today’s update confirmed the company is still on track for that.
Even though the price did fall today, Travis Perkins shares are still up 60% over the past 12 months, though at nearly 18 the forward P/E is perhaps getting a bit high.
Rank Group
Shares in Rank Group (LSE: RNK) dipped by 3.5p (2.3%) to 150.5p, after like-for-like revenues for the 15 weeks to 13 October fell 7% — the firm put it down to the hot July weather keeping people away from its venues. Total revenue, however, is up 15% due to the contributions made by recently-acquired casinos.
The company told us it is to take action to boost revenue and reduce costs, saying that “the impact of these actions is expected to commence in the second half of the financial year“.
The fall today takes Rank shares slightly down over 12 months.
Xaar
Inkjet-printing specialist Xaar (LSE: XAR) announced today that third-quarter revenues were in line with expectations, and the market responded by sending the share price down 18p (2.3%) to 782p — but it has still trebled over the past 12 months, so shareholders are still likely to be feeling pretty happy.
The firm’s net cash position strengthened from £49.4m at the end of June, to £56.6m by 30 September — back in December 2012 it stood at £28.9m.
Full-year expectations remain unchanged, with the City predicting a doubling in EPS to more than 42p, putting the shares on a P/E of 19.
