World markets remained in the red today on fears over the global economy as President Barack Obama pledged to tackle the US’s looming fiscal cliff as “urgent business”.
London’s FTSE 100 Index closed 72.2 points lower at 5,605.6 after hitting a two-month low on Thursday.
There was little in the way of heavyweight corporate news, although Panmure Gordon stockbrokers upgraded outsourcing firm Serco with a buy rating in the wake of an update confirming that it has been trading in line with expectations. The FTSE 100 Index company climbed 1% or 5.5p to 550p.
IMI was the biggest share riser after it said underlying revenues for the four months to the end of October were 3% ahead of last year. IMI’s shares responded with a rise of 2%, up 16p to 958p.
Melrose, which acquires firms in the engineering sector with the intention of improving their performance, led the fallers board after spooking investors by noting slower trends for certain businesses in the last few weeks. Its shares slumped more than 11%, off 27.1p to 208.9p.
The biggest FTSE 100 fallers also included Eurasian Natural Resources off 14.8p to 259.6p, Pennon Group 29p lower at 599.5p and Lloyds Banking Group down 1.7p to 44p.
Among the biggest FTSE 100 risers were Compass Group, 4.5p higher at 692p, and Polymetal International up 7p to 111p.
Barry Shepherd, of investment manager and financial planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Aberdeen, noted that the day’s fallers included Standard Life which lost 1.2% to 299.7p, while Amec closed 2.5% lower at 994.5p.
Risers included Stagecoach, which added 0.8% at 268p, and Parkmead rose 1.8% to 13.75p.