FTSE 100 movers: Shire and Next sold off ahead of results

The FTSE 100 was traipsing lower on Monday afternoon, led down by an assortment of companies across sectors, notably those that are due to report in the coming few days.

Shire, which is scheduled to post its third-quarter results on Tuesday, was bottom of the pile as the drug developer sank to its lowest point since the week after the Brexit vote.

It has not been the best October for Big Pharma, with the sector squeezed by pricing pressure in the US, ramped up to a degree by the worries about how presidential candidate Hillary Clinton would come after the industry following her comments about outrageous price gouging by drug companies.

Shire's numbers will also be marked against a strong comparative quarter last year, with analysts at Deutsche Bank expecting a decline in earnings per share EPS given initial dilution from full consolidation of the Baxalta takeover and launch costs for its Xiidra treatment.

Smith & Nephew, another healthcare stock with chunky exposure to the US, was also down a couple of clicks.

Elsewhere, Next was down as investors look in fear to Wednesday's Q3 report, with the clothes retailer also coming up against what will be its toughest comparative of the financial year.

"With market data indicating that a warmer-than-usual autumn has thus far undermined full-price sell-through of new seasonal ranges for many retailers, we are anticipating a difficult quarter of trading for Next," said analysts at Shore Capital, who also take into account a dip in consumer confidence data.

They forecast retail sales could be down as much as 6% on a full-price basis as data and said full-year estimates for profit before tax are likely to be re-adjusted, with consensus current forecasting £801.6m.

Dribbling lower as the afternoon wore on, Tesco was hit by news that investors have launched a legal claim for more than £100m in damages stemming from its over-statement of profits and alleged misleading statements to the stock market.

The damages claim was filed on Monday for "well in excess of £100m" over Tesco's alleged breaches of the Financial Services & Markets Act in relation to over-statement of earnings.

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell was also down ahead of its Q3 results, with analysts expecting underlying profits to be down slightly to $1.7bn, compared to $1.8bn in the same period last year.

However, Deutsche analysts said this was not really bad news: “After the severe disappointment associated with the second quarter results our expectation is that the third quarter will prove a ‘better predicted’ quarter. We expect Upstream results to benefit from raised deepwater volumes, not least Brazil, lower costs and uptime in Canada. Downstream we see an improvement in chemicals and marketing offsetting the weaker refining and trading environment.”

Going the other way, WPP was top of the leaderboard as its quarterly results were helped by sterling's softness. The advertising giant, which makes almost 90% of its net sales overseas, delivered net revenue of £3.1m, ahead of consensus forecasts, while profit margins also bested estimates and the outlook remained neutral.

The advertising colossus reported that quarterly revenues grew 23.4%, with constant currency growth of 7.6%, 4.4% coming from acquisitions and over 15% from currency.

Analyst George Salmon at Hargreaves Lansdown: "The group is growing net sales, acquiring strongly and improving its profitability: a pretty potent combination. These strengths have helped WPP to one of the best dividend records around, and looking forwards, the group is looking to capitalise on the upward trend in emerging markets to keep its run of increasing the payout each year going.”

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,952.27 -0.63%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,570.29 -0.42%
techMARK (TASX) 3,366.15 -0.87%

FTSE 100 - Risers

WPP (WPP) 1,777.00p 4.04%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,195.00p 2.79%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,123.00p 2.14%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 541.00p 1.88%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 903.50p 1.86%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 713.30p 1.52%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,636.00p 1.49%
Carnival (CCL) 3,929.00p 1.34%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,921.00p 1.21%
Glencore (GLEN) 247.35p 1.17%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Shire Plc (SHP) 4,622.00p -3.34%
Next (NXT) 4,822.00p -3.06%
Tesco (TSCO) 210.85p -2.27%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 189.60p -2.27%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,328.00p -2.06%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 339.70p -2.02%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,185.00p -1.99%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,458.00p -1.95%
easyJet (EZJ) 934.00p -1.94%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,032.50p -1.86%