Sector movers: CRH and Balfour Beatty drag construction/materials stocks lower

CRH, which is set to pick up assets worth €6.5bn from Holcim and Lafarge as part of the cement companies' planned merger, was trading 3.5% lower after weekend reports raised uncertainty about the deal.

Thomas Schmidheiny, the largest shareholder of Swiss group Holcim, was reported to have had doubts about the tie-up under its current terms and asked for a better deal.

CRH, which confirmed its asset-purchase deal at the start of February, said the transaction represents a "significant" value creation opportunity but is "conditional upon successful completion of the Lafarge and Holcim merger".

Meanwhile, Balfour lost 1.6% despite the news that it has been appointed as the civil contractor to deliver a 10-year project on the Thames Estuary in the largest single flood risk asset management programme ever awarded in the UK.

The project, which is being delivered on behalf of the UK's Environment Agency and has a total value of £300m, is expected to be worth up to £250m to Balfour Beatty.

Others in the sector including Tyman, Alumasc, Galliford Try and Keller was also registering losses in afternoon trade.

Top performing sectors so far today
Gas, Water & Multiutilities 5,747.04 +0.27%
Aerospace and Defence 5,285.37 +0.10%
Media 7,415.95 +0.10%
Electricity 9,088.21 +0.05%
Household Goods & Home Construction 14,139.95 +0.05%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Construction & Materials 4,670.91 -2.56%
Industrial Metals & Mining 1,876.18 -1.60%
Real Estate Investment Trusts 3,284.04 -1.43%
Real Estate Investment & Services 2,932.75 -1.32%
Tobacco 44,346.83 -1.31%