London close: Shares drop amid lack of action by European Central Bank

London shares fell on Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB) failed to produce any new stimulus for the Eurozone's economy.

The FTSE 100 Index closed 37.26 points adrift at 6679.37 after ECB president Mario Draghi left interest rates unchanged and announced no extraordinary further policy action.

Mainland European markets were also down after the announcement, although the ECB provided some reassurance that it was still considering possible stimulus by vowing to review monetary policy “early next year”.

Jasper Lawler at CMC Markets said: “The ECB President has been walking a tightrope of keeping expectations of quantitative easing alive while acknowledging that the governing council has not reached consensus that this is the best course of action to fulfil its price stability mandate.”

In London, there were no surprises from the Bank of England, which kept interest rates on hold and its quantitative easing at the same level as expected.

In corporate news, airline and travel stocks were flying higher after Ryanair increased its annual profit guidance following a good November.

TUI Travel climbed 15.6p to 444.3p, Easyjet ascended 48p to 1716p and cruise operator Carnival floated up 12p to 2730p. Ryanair’s stock lifted €0.73 to €9.45.

Accountancy software firm Sage sparked 27.5p to 449.6p as both Citigroup and Credit Suisse upgraded their target prices on the stock.

But miners fell after Rio Tinto told investors that the near-term outlook for the company and the industry was challenging. Rio dropped 77.5p to 2933.5p, Anglo American subsided 36.5p to 1283.5p and BHP Billiton was off 18.5p at 1500p.

Market Movers
techMARK 2,943.95 +0.11%
FTSE 100 6,679.37 -0.55%
FTSE 250 15,840.51 +0.18%

FTSE 100 - Risers
Sage Group (SGE) 449.60p +6.51%
TUI Travel (TT.) 444.30p +3.64%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,716.00p +2.88%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,581.00p +2.66%
IMI (IMI) 1,180.00p +2.08%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,665.00p +1.96%
Royal Mail (RMG) 405.00p +1.76%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 880.50p +1.50%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 968.10p +1.38%
CRH (CRH) 1,555.00p +1.30%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,962.00p -3.16%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 233.40p -2.95%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 408.90p -2.90%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,283.50p -2.77%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,933.50p -2.57%
BP (BP.) 426.90p -2.28%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,461.00p -1.91%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 791.50p -1.86%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 223.65p -1.63%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,864.00p -1.55%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Betfair Group (BET) 1,472.00p +7.60%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 303.80p +5.34%
Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 321.40p +4.32%
Fisher (James) & Sons (FSJ) 1,094.00p +3.60%
Victrex plc (VCT) 1,855.00p +3.57%
Bellway (BWY) 1,919.00p +3.17%
Alent (ALNT) 350.00p +3.06%
Redrow (RDW) 289.50p +2.99%
SIG (SHI) 164.70p +2.94%
SSP Group (SSPG) 281.00p +2.86%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 62.95p -8.24%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 562.00p -7.87%
EnQuest (ENQ) 45.75p -6.63%
De La Rue (DLAR) 512.50p -4.21%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 1,183.00p -3.98%
Hunting (HTG) 554.50p -3.65%
Premier Oil (PMO) 192.40p -3.46%
Debenhams (DEB) 70.85p -3.21%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 87.50p -2.89%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 449.00p -2.88%

FTSE TechMARK - Risers
Consort Medical (CSRT) 770.00p +8.22%
Filtronic (FTC) 25.25p +6.32%
Anite (AIE) 84.00p +5.33%
CML Microsystems (CML) 367.50p +3.52%
Optos (OPTS) 236.00p +1.83%
XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 1,414.00p +1.00%
Kofax Limited (DI) (KFX) 431.25p +0.97%
E2V Technologies (E2V) 173.00p +0.87%
BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) 15.50p +0.81%
KCOM Group (KCOM) 86.25p +0.58%

FTSE TechMARK - Fallers
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 5.30p -3.64%
RM (RM.) 153.00p -3.16%
Skyepharma (SKP) 364.25p -2.35%
Torotrak (TRK) 14.00p -1.75%
Vectura Group (VEC) 132.00p -1.12%
Dialight (DIA) 760.00p -1.11%
Microgen (MCGN) 121.50p -0.82%
Phoenix IT Group (PNX) 133.50p -0.37%
Ricardo (RCDO) 617.75p -0.20%