London lower on retail disappointment

The London markets were down by mid-afternoon Thursday, with the FTSE 100 down 0.1 percent to 4,955.3 and the FTSE 250 falling 0.8 percent to sit at 7,182.9.

The losses were mostly due to weakness in the mining and oil sectors and the fact that Apax Partners had cancelled its bid to take over Woolworth’s.

Woolworth’s shares fell by 29.1 percent to 39 p after Apax abandoned its takeover offer, estimated to be approximately £837 million.

This withdrawal of the offer by Apax was seen as bad news for the retail sector in general.

There was also some speculation that Apax actually was only interested in Woolworth’s Entertainment Division and decided that buying the whole package was too risky.

On the other hand, the pharmaceutical sector made gains. AstraZeneca rose by 1.9 percent and GlaxoSmithKline was up 2 percent.

In the oil sector, Shell was down 0.6 percent and BP fell 1.2 percent. The mining sector was generally down for the second day straight.

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