In early dealings on Tuesday, the FTSE 100 drifts 25.36 points lower to 6,670 and the FTSE 250 is off 58.5 points at 16,809, London's indices tracking some mixed perfomances overnight from global markets as well as weaker oil prices.
Leading mining stocks are among the notable fallers, with Rio Tinto (RIO) down 2.2% to £24.07 as second quarter production figures confirm a surge in iron ore output. The market is worried that excess supply will hurt iron ore prices and therefore dampen future earnings for the miner. Fellow iron ore miners Evraz (EVR) and Anglo American (AAL) fall by up to 3.5% in response.
Flooding has caused gold miner Petropavlovsk (POG) to warn that production will be at the lower end of expectations. Investors don’t appear too fussed as the shares remains flat at 7.59p.
Airport and train station food seller SSP (SSPG) nudges ahead 1% to 297.9p as it reassures on trading and says a continuation of current exchange rates would boost full-year earnings by 3%. The main relevant currencies for the group are the euro, US dollar, Swedish krona and Norwegian krone, as well as sterling.
DP Poland (DPP:AIM) jumps 7.7% to 43.5p after reporting a 28% rise in like-for-like sales for the first half of 2016. New stores are performing better than expected.
Agriculture, food and engineering combine Carr's (CARR) cheapens 4.5p to 137p as CEO Tim Davies cautions the group 'continues to operate in difficult and challenging markets and this has inevitably been exacerbated by the uncertainty triggered by the result of the recent EU referendum'. Feedblock sales in the UK are down, as are machinery sales, and Davies warns the engineering division's performance will be behind expectations for the year due to contract delays.
Windows and doors specialist Safestyle UK (SFE:AIM) skips 4.3% higher to 245p on a positive half-year trading update, boss Steve Birmingham insisting there's been 'no short term detrimental effect' on orders since the EU referendum. In fact, order intake rose by an encouraging 19.7% in the six months to June, which should deliver sales up 12.8% to £83.5 million.
Energy efficient products provider Entu (UK) slumps 25.7% to 40.5p on a full-year profit warning, blamed on the additional costs of managing its exit from the solar business as well as slower-than-expected growth in the core home improvements activities.
Secure Trust Bank (STB:AIM) gains 4.3% to £19.79 after reporting a 54% improvement in underlying pre-tax profits to £17.4 million for the six months to June. The sale of Everyday Loans swells profits to £129.1 million, boosting the bank’s capital to navigate the post-Brexit market.
Cancer diagnostic specialist Angle (AGL:AIM) rises 3.8% to 68.5p after announcing it has started a 200-patient study of the efficiency of its Parsortix’s device in detecting ovarian cancer.
