Technology stocks lead fall on UK exchanges

Technology stocks were down in mid-day trading Monday in London following IBM’s bad news on earnings.

Sage Group was down 3.7 percent, 3i Group had fallen 2.9 percent, and communications group Spirent was down 5.5 percent.

Asset managers and life assurers were also down substantially. Amvescap fell by 4.2 percent, Royal & Sun Alliance was down 2.5 percent, and Man Group had dropped 3.4 percent by mid-day.
The energy sector was not doing much better.

BP fell 1.8 percent, Shell was down 1.7 percent, Burren Energy was off by 5.4 percent, Tullow Oil fell by 4 percent, and Dana Petroleum was down 4.6 percent on the news that crude oil prices had fallen again.

All of this send the London markets down at mid-day on Monday, with the FTSE 100 down by 1.7 percent to 4,809.1 and the FTSE 250 off by 2.3 percent to 6.922.6. Every single FTSE 100 stock began the day down and by mid-morning on one, the television group ITV, had managed to post a gain; it was up 0.2 percent.

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