MARKET REPORT

ASTRAZENECA weakened by 35p to 5333p as it ended trials of a drug for Alzheimer’s disease after the treatment failed to show signs of working.

An update that it is trading in line with expectations failed to light up shares in cigarettes giant

British American Tobacco, 66½p lower at 3680p.

Crest Nicholson’s poorly received half-year report weakened the foundations of the housebuilding sector, where top flight rivals Barratt Developments and Persimmon subsided 18p to 561p and 70p to 2790p. Mid-cap builder Bellway was dragged 122p lower to 3287p despite record annual earnings.

Fashion brand Ted Baker was marked down 40p to 2346p despite growing revenue by 4.2 per cent over the past 19 weeks. Cloud computing company

Iomart fell 19p to 376p despite increasing its annual adjusted pre-tax profits by 7 per cent to £24million. Industrial fastenings group

Trifast eased 9p to 263p despite annual underlying pre-tax profits growing by 8.5 per cent to £22.2million.