Telecoms shares drove leading UK equities lower by midsession today after weak results from Sweden's Ericsson, while bleak updates from advertiser WPP
and news and information provider Reuters weighed on the mood of the market.
News that Lattice Group is to buy gas distributor National Grid Group in a deal worth around 6.3 billion pounds sent their shares up 11.4 per cent and 3.4 per cent, respectively, but could not shore up the FTSE 100 index.
By 1215 GMT the index was down 25.6 points at 5,218.0, with volume a modest 960 million shares. Vodafone's 4.1 per cent fall to 112-1/2 pence took 14 points off the FTSE 100, while mobile peer mm02 dropped 6.5 percent to a fresh low of 50-1/4p.
Reuters was down 2.3 per cent at 499p, steadying higher after touching 478-1/2p, its lowest point since October 1998. The company reported weaker-than-expected revenues and warned that tough times lay ahead.
The world's second-largest advertiser, WPP, was down 2.4 per cent at 758p after it reported a slip in first-quarter revenues and said that there had been no pickup in its ravaged industry since the end of last year.