The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) is continuing in its gloomy mood today, having lost 24 points to 6,416 by mid-morning. There’s little behind the latest bearishness other than ongoing worries about Syria, and a general restlessness as markets fear the inevitable onset of economic stimulus reduction. But at least it’s sunny.
With the FTSE still falling, which shares are racing to beat it down? Here are three from the various indices losing ground today.
Meggitt
Shares in Meggitt (LSE: MGGT) fell this morning, losing 8.5p (1.6%) to 524p, after the aerospace and defence engineer announced an acquisition. The target is Piezotech, which is to be bought for $41.2m in cash. The firm’s technology, including piezo-ceramics, is apparently a good fit with Meggitt’s sensing systems.
Meggitt shares have been falling back since early July, though they are still up more than 30% over the past 12 months, and the price was hardly affected by decent-looking interim results released on 8 August.
Polymetal International
We know sentiment has turned bad towards miners again, and Polymetal International (LSE: POLY) was the one to suffer this morning. The gold and silver miner working in Russia and Kazakhstan saw its shares crash 49p (6.6%) to 692p after first-half results disappointed the market. With gold and silver prices down 13% and 18% respectively over the previous 12 months, Polymetal’s revenue slipped 6% to $721m, despite an 8% growth in the actual amount of gold sold.
Adjusted EBITDA slumped 38% to $239m, and an interim dividend of just 1 cent per share was declared.
Chemring Group
Chemring Group (LSE: CHG) shares have been looking as if they might reach break-even point over the past 12 months, but they dipped a little today, losing 2.5p (0.8%) to 305p after releasing a third-quarter update for the period ending 31 July. Revenue declined by 13.5% to £143m, blamed on cuts in NATO defence spending, but it was all in line with expectations — the firm told us its outlook for the full year is unchanged.
After a 43% fall in earnings per share last year, the City is expecting a further drop of 14% for the year to October. Dividends should yield around 3%, and the shares are on a forward P/E of about 12.5, falling to 11.4 based on 2014 predictions.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.