London equities markets were lower again on Thursday as the FTSE 100 was down 1.2 percent to 5,858.1, brining its points loss to 123.6 in two days. The FTSE 250 dropped 1.3 percent to 9,576.1.
A good portion of the losses on the 250 were due to declines in the engineering sector. Bodycote International dropped 4.6 percent to 222¼p, while Invensys fell 4.7 percent to 190p and FKI was 5.9 percent lower to 91¼p. all these declines were triggered by a profits warning from automobile and construction group Tomkins, down 14.7 percent to 241¼p.
Plumbing and building materials group Wolseley dropped 3 percent to £11.15, hurt by a profits warning issued by US homebuilder KB Home.
Online gambler PartyGaming was 9.8 percent lower to 105¾p on the news that the chairman of Sportingbet had been detained by authorities in New York. Sportingbet trade is still suspended at 239p.
Among gainers on the day were Scottish & Southern Energy, up 1.2 percent to £12.30, after an upgrade to “buy” from Citigroup, which set a target share price of £13.50 for the utility. Among the reasons cited for the upgrade was the belief that Scottish & Southern’s decision not to set higher gas prices will pay off soon.