Thursday March 27, 08:30 AM
London shares open mixed after US slide; Kingfisher falls on dividend cut
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Leading shares opened mixed, following a slide on Wall Street yesterday, and with B&Q owner Kingfisher (LSE: KGF.L - news) falling after reporting lower annual profit and slashing its dividend.
At 8.07 am, the FTSE 100 was down 2.5 points at 5,657.9, having fallen 28.7 points to close at 5,660.4 yesterday. The FTSE 250 was up 14 points at 9,770.1.
Wall Street pulled back yesterday after a drop in February's durable goods orders injected more pessimism about the economy into the stock market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 109.74, or 0.88 pct, to 12,422.86, after sinking as much as 155 points during trading.
Broader stock indicators also retreated. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 11.86, or 0.88 pct, to 1,341.13, while the Nasdaq composite (NASDAQ: news) index fell 16.69, or 0.71 pct, to 2,324.36.
The indices ended the day at levels similar to where they had been as the London market was closing.
In Asia this morning, Japan's Nikkei 225 (news) ended the day 102.05 points, or 0.8 pct, lower at 12,604.58. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (news) closed up 47.21 points, or 0.2 pct, at 22,664.22.
Oil prices were higher in Asian trade, bolstered by a weaker-than-expected energy stockpiles report in the US, the world's biggest energy user.
Back in London, Kingfisher was the biggest FTSE 100 faller in early trade, down 4.1 pence at 131 pence after the global home improvement retailer slashed its final dividend payout by 50 pct as it reported an expected 2.8 pct fall in full year underlying pretax profit.
The group, which trades from about 780 stores in nine countries in Europe and Asia, also said it expected to cut its interim dividend in the current year by the same magnitude.
For the year to Feb 2, 2008 Kingfisher made a profit before tax and exceptional items of 386 mln stg -- in line with analysts' consensus forecast of 385 mln stg but down from 397 mln stg in the previous year.
Bus and train operator FirstGroup (LSE: FGP.L - news) rose 19 pence to 563-1/2 pence after an in-line trading update.
Among the midcaps, Northern Foods (LSE: NFDS.L - news) was up 6-3/4 pence, or 7.8 pct, at 93-3/4, after saying its trading performance has continued to meet expectations and it sees adjusted pretax profit for the year to March 29 beating the median market consensus.
The maker of Goodfella's pizzas and Fox's biscuits said full-year underlying revenue grew 3.2 pct, with prices up 2.4 pct and volumes up 0.8 pct.
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