Scott Reid: Shares suffer second day of woes

Building and plumbing supplies group Wolseley cast a shadow over a London market that fell for a second session, closing well below the 6,000 mark.

Pound coins

The benchmark FTSE 100 Index tumbled 49.62 points or 0.8 per cent to 5,909.24 following a 150-point slump on Monday and big falls on Asian markets overnight.

Plumb Center owner Wolseley was down more than 12 per cent, after it warned of slowing revenue growth as pre-tax profits for the full-year to the end of July fell 25 per cent.

UK sentiment was buoyed a little by CBI figures showing retail sales growing faster than expected, while Bank of England data showed mortgage approvals at a 19-month high in August.

Tony Cross, market analyst at Trustnet Direct, said: “Once again it’s been a difficult day for London’s FTSE 100 but the index is at least closing comfortably above session lows.”

Commodities trading and mining giant Glencore gained ground after a dramatic 29 per cent slump in the previous session, with a rise of 17 per cent, or 11.6p to 80.3p.

Elsewhere in the top-flight, supermarkets were ahead after a note from Bernstein analyst Bruno Monteyne on latest results from Aldi showing that despite strong sales growth its profits had fallen amid the sector’s price war.

Tesco rose 3 per cent or 5.1p to 171.3p while Sainsbury’s added 3.2p to 229.3p and Morrisons climbed 0.6p to 156.1p.