London’s blue chip share index enjoyed its best January for 24 years despite ending the month with a disappointing session.
The top flight has risen by more than 6%, or 379 points, since the start of the year – making it the best January performance since 1989 and the third best in the history of the FTSE 100.
But there are signs that the new year rally is fizzling out, with the Footsie down 46.2 points at 6,276.9 today as it succumbed to a bout of profit-taking.
Corporate results had an impact on the top tier’s performance, with AstraZeneca the biggest faller after the drug giant warned that the impact of lost patents would continue to depress revenue this year. Shares were off 99.5p to £30.53, a drop of more than 3%, after chief executive Pascal Soriot also reported a 38% drop in pre-tax profits to £4.9billion for 2012.
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell was another faller, off 68p to £22.94, after the fourth quarter performance of its upstream operations disappointed analysts.
Sage Group and Antofagasta were other big fallers, down 8.9p at 322.7p and 27p to £11.42 respectively.
Satellite broadcaster BSkyB was among the biggest top flight risers, up 7.5p to 817.5p, after it reported an 8% rise in operating profits to £647million in the six months to December 31.
Drink giant Diageo also received a results-day boost after operating profits of just over £2billion came in slightly ahead of City forecasts. Shares were 24p higher at £18.77.
Vedanta Resources rose 40p to £12.04, Petrofac lifted 23p to £16.38 and SABMiller was 41p higher at £31.50.
Carrie Keenan, of investment manager and financial planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Aberdeen, highlighted A.G. Barr adding 3.33% at £5.40 and Hunting up 1.8% to 845.75p, while Faroe Petroleum weakened 2.9% to 133.875p, BG Group slid 1.75% to £11.20 and Weir Group shed 1.98% at £19.84.