Negative day all round as broker comments and oil price fall bite

ROBERT Wiseman Dairies has seen a string of analyst upgrades in recent months and there were signs yesterday that institutional investors are taking notice.

Standard Life Investments announced yesterday it had increased its stake in the dairy group to more than 5 per cent.

As SLI did not previously have a reportable stake, it must have bought more than 2 per cent in recent days. The shares closed down 4.5p at 547.5p.

Transport operator Stagecoach was hit by broker comment, with Goldman Sachs cutting its target price from 210p to 197p. Stagecoach fell 2 per cent to 224.75p, while FTSE 100 member FirstGroup fell 8p to 626.5p.

Oil and gas stocks were hit by a fall in oil prices. Cairn Energy lost 102p to 2,538p, Dana Petroleum shed 96p to 1,255p and Venture Production was down 23p to 714.5p. Oil services heavyweight Wood Group fell 7 per cent to 358.25p.

There were fresh all-time lows for retinal scanning company Optos, down 6p to 114p, and Edinburgh pharmaceutical company Ardana, 3p off at 37.5p. Wolfson Microelectronics also fell, down 3.25p to 161.75p.

Aim-listed digital CCTV company IndigoVision fell a further 50p to 735p, despite announcing a contract to monitor campuses for the University of Miami.