The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) appears to be retaining its recent strong levels, hovering just 2 points up today at 6,588 and at its highest for more than a month, after an upbeat production report from Rio Tinto helped calm nerves over China. But UK inflation is up a bit at 2.9%, which may require intervention from the Bank of England.
Despite the overall optimism, there are some companies responding negatively to news today. Here are three that the FTSE looks likely to beat:
Computacenter
A trading update from Computacenter (LSE: CCC) failed to ignite enthusiasm this morning, sending the share price down 10p (2%) to 480p — a recent recovery in the price has been faltering of late.
Ahead of Computacenter’s first-half results, its pre-close statement told us that overall trading is in line with prior expectations, with group revenue flat for the half — forecasts for the full year are expecting no change in earnings per share. But it’s probably the regional variation that has unsettled investors — though UK business sounds good, the firm is still uncertain about several loss-making German contracts. First-half results should be here on 30 August.
Sirius Minerals
Sirius Minerals (LSE: SXX) published the latest progress from its York Potash project today, and saw its share price take a sharp drop of 3.25p (11.8%) to 24.25p. With the planning committee and officer recommendation reports due by the end of this week, Sirius says there is an “exceptionally compelling case” for approval.
There are still some key objections, but Sirius says it is making good progress on them, with objections from the Environment Agency having been conditionally dropped, and a Ministry of Defence objection expected to follow suit.
ASOS
In a surprise move, online fashion retailer ASOS (LSE: ASC) has announced that Kate Bostock, Executive Director Product and Trading, has resigned with immediate effect — Ms Bostock only joined the board in January this year, and ASOS will now decide whether it needs to replace her. In a great example of management-speak, chief executive Nick Robertson said that “Kate and I have agreed that ASOS is not the right platform for her talent.“
The share price is down 41.5p (1%) by early afternoon, though it has still more than doubled over the past 12 months.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.