INVESTORS disappointment with an unexciting set of corporate results kept share prices under pressure for much of the session yesterday, and the FTSE 100 index failed to come close to the all time intra day high recorded on Tuesday.
The main drag on the market was pharmaceuticals group Glaxo Wellcome, which disappointed investors with its dividend, cost reductions and sales of Zantac. The fall in Glaxo's price by itself knocked nine points off the Footsie.
Shares in some other leading companies fell after they reported figures, notably BAT Industries, Cadbury Schweppes and T&N.
"It's the first time the market has really been badly hit in the results season," said Mr Bob Semple, head of the equity strategy team at NatWest Securities. "None of the results were particularly awful and maybe it tells you something about the mood the market's in."
One analyst said the fall in Glaxo's shares might be a symptom of a sectoral shift in the market. Mr Richard Kersley, UK equity strategist at Barclays de Zoete Wedd, argued that "the market is looking for rate cuts and has a bias towards cyclicals. There is not much appetite for stocks in defensive sectors such as pharmaceuticals".
The glum mood was set early in the morning. Wall Street's strong close on Tuesday failed to give the London market much of a lift at the opening and the FTSE 100 index started the day a modest 1.5 points higher at 3,778.6.
By 9.30 a.m., Footsie was in negative territory where it stayed for the rest of the day. By the close, the leading index was 18.2 points lower at 3,758.9, marginally above its worst level of the session.
There was little help from Wall Street where Treasury bonds were around three quarters of a point lower by the close of London trading and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, after another zigzag start, was about 12 points adrift.
Not all was gloom, however. Once again, the FTSE Mid 250 outperformed the senior index, rising 4.5 to a record 4,276.7. Special situations, particularly the management changes at House of Fraser and a sharp rise in South West Water, were a strong influence.
