Rolls-Royce is rocked by emergency landing in US

SHARES in Rolls-Royce hit turbulence as a mid- flight problem with one of its latest jet engines forced an Airbus A350 into an emergency landing, sparking fears that design flaws may be more widespread than first thought.

The aerospace engineer had previously hailed the ‘excellent’ reliability of its XWB suite of engines, but an Iberia flight from New York to Madrid had to divert to Boston after one of the two engines shut down 90 minutes after take-off.

Rolls’ Trent 900 and 1000 engines have also been plagued by technical troubles of late, with repair work on those expected to dent this year’s profits by £450m.

Investors, concerned about the possibility of another costly round of repairs, pushed the eject button, sending the shares down 4pc. They later recovered to close 1.1pc lower, or 10.6p, at 964.4p.

Helped by a slew of green among the heavyweight oil and mining stocks, the FTSE 100 closed up 0.55pc, or 39.82 points, at 7313.36. The FTSE 250 also finished in positive territory, rising 0.76pc, or 154.11 points, to 20,380.53, led by housebuilder Galliford T ry, up 10.5pc, or 105p, to 1104p, and homeware retailer Dunelm, up 11.9pc, or 60.5p, to 570.5p, after both released full-year results that were greeted positively.

Retailers were among those boosting the Footsie as fashion stores rode higher on the coattails of Spain’s rag-trade giant Zara. That was after the fastfashion chain’s owner, Inditex, controlled by Europe’s richest person, Amancio Ortega, said its latest collections had been ‘wellreceived’ by customers as it forecast a rise in second-half sales of up to 6pc. Marks and Spencer rose 1.5pc, or 4.4p, to 293.3p, while

Next, which has half-year results out this month, climbed 0.8pc, or 44p, to 5468p. Superdry zipped 0.9pc higher, or 10p, to 1158p.

Preventing the blue-chip index from moving higher were the energy groups, which fell to the bottom of the leaderboard as a profit warning from SSE spooked investors in the sector.

The Scotland-based company, which supplies electricity and gas up and down the UK, blamed the wrong type of summer weather as it warned that operating profits will be almost £200m below what it expected.

The stock fell 8.3pc, or 103.5p, to 1147p dragging with it sector peers National Grid, down 0.63pc, or 5.1p, to 802.80p and British Gas owner Centrica, which dipped 3.6pc, or 5.4p, to 144.35p.

Down on junior market AIM, upmarket estate agent M Winkworth was in demand as it reported a pick-up in rental activity in its core London market.

Record numbers of renters are registering in the capital, and Winkworth expects that to continue as more people are priced out of buying their own home.

Perhaps more importantly, it reckons sales volumes, which have fallen due to Brexit uncertainty and higher stamp duty fees, are unlikely to slide further.

Shares closed 14.7pc higher, or 16p, at 125p.

London’s biggest faller was also to be found among the small caps.

Trakm8 Holdings dropped after the telematics and data supply firm warned that it had had a weak start to the current financial year. The stock price fell 20.3pc, or 15p, to 60p. That was in stark contrast to

Mycelx T echnologies, which gushed 40.7pc higher, or 55p, to 190p after it posted a sharp rise in first-half revenue and earnings.

It uses its tech to help oil and gas companies remove hydrocarbons from water, and saw revenues more than double to £9.3m from £4.5m last year, while the firm’s earnings surged to £2.1m from £229,000.