The London market struggled for direction as Morrisons shares came under pressure after it posted further falls in profits.
The FTSE 250 supermarket chain saw annual underlying pre-tax profits tumble 29% to £242 million, despite a brighter performance for like-for-like sales, which declined 2% compared with a fall of 5.9% in 2014.
It was a mixed session for the FTSE 100 Index, which clung close to its opening mark, edging 10.5 points lower to 6135.9 after the falling oil price dragged commodity stocks lower.
Oil giants BP and Royal Dutch Shell dropped 4p to 352p and 16.5p to 1672.5p respectively, as Brent crude fell 39 cents to 40.6 US dollars a barrel.
In stocks, Morrisons shares were down 5.3p to 196.7p as the firm announced a statutory pre-tax profit of £217 million, compared with a £792 million loss a year ago after it made large writedowns across the value of its store estate.
The Bradford-based business was one of the few major supermarket chains to report a sales rise in the key festive trading period, with the industry gripped by a fierce price war with discounters Aldi and Lidl.
Insurance giant Aviva was the biggest riser on the London market after its announced a bumper payout for shareholders and better-than-expected profits.
Operating profits for the full year climbed by a fifth to £2.7 billion, beating forecasts of £2.49 billion, as the company’s integration with Friends Life following its £6 billion takeover moved “faster and better than expected”.
Shares surged more than 4% or 18.9p to 478.5p, as the company also announced it would increase the final dividend per share by 15% to 14.05p.
Home Retail Group also saw its stock value rise 0.7p to 180.7p as the pace of sales declines at Argos halved as its overhaul remains on track.
Home Retail – which is at the centre of a bidding war – said like-for-like sales at Argos fell 1.1% in the eight weeks to February 27, compared with a fall of 2.2% in the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, Centrica was up 2.4p to 229.6p as investors felt the energy giant had got off lightly from the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) proposals to shake up the industry.
The company disputed the CMA’s claims that customers have been overpaying by £1.7 billion a year and said it believed the market was “very competitive”.
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