FTSE 100 slips back despite Wolseley spike

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By Rachel Cooper


Published: 12:40PM GMT 23 Feb 2010







Wolseley



Liberty International



AstraZeneca



Man Group



ICAP

The company spiked more than 10pc to £16.21 after it said full-year profit
before exceptional items were set to beat forecasts after cutting costs. The
positive profit warning prompted analysts at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch
to raise their estimates and repeat their "buy" rating.

AstraZeneca ticked
up 27p to £28.37 after increasing its earnings-per-share target for 2010.
The announcement came as Britain's second-largest drug maker agreed to pay
£505m to settle a tax dispute.

But strong showings from Wolseley, AstraZeneca and Liberty
International, which put on 9 to 482.1p after Credit Suisse raised
its target price, were not enough to keep the large caps in positive
territory.

By late morning, the blue-chips had turned negative as investors battened down
the hatches following a warning from Mervyn King, Bank of England governor,
that the UK's economic recovery was fragile.

Also dragging down the blue-chips was Man
Group, which slipped more than 2pc to 231.62p after
Stanley Fink, the hedge fund tycoon, revealed that he is set to pitch
himself against his former business with the launch a "black box"
version of Man's flagship AHL fund at his new company, ISAM. Interdealer
broker ,ICAP,
also slipped back more than 2pc to 331.2p.

Among the second-liners, Mondi,
the paper-maker, shot to to the top of the leaderboard, climbing more than
6pc to 386.5p after it forecast a recovery in the coming year as demand
rises.

At the other end of the table, Drax slipped back 16.5 to 400.3 after
the power station operator reported a slump in full-year profits, driven by
low power prices and demand.

Despite full-year earnings-per-share plunging 44pc due to lower sales and
prices, the company said it expected a recovery a steady improvement in
order volumes combined with the group restructuring put the company in a
good position to perform well in the year ahead.

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