MARKET REPORT
THE FTSE 100 ended the day flat, dragged down by Just Eat shares on competition fears from Deliveroo.
The index closed lower by 0.1 point at 7,703.71 points after a near 5% or 40p drop in Just Eat’s stock price to 810p, making it the worst blue-chip performer.
It follows an announcement by rival Deliveroo that restaurants will now have the choice of fulfilling orders using their own drivers. Eateries previously had to use Deliveroo’s fleet.
The move will pit Deliveroo directly against Just Eat, which only offers a platform for restaurants to sell and deliver food with their own drivers.
Sterling staged a mild recovery against the US dollar, to trade about 0.05% higher at 1.337. Against the euro, the pound was down 0.3% at 1.135.
In UK stocks, WPP dropped 11.5p to 1,235p as the advertising giant faced a bruising AGM where nearly a third of shareholders rejected a bumper payout for outgoing chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell.
Sainsbury shares rose 1.6p to 308.2p despite news the grocery giant’s chief executive will be hauled before MPs to explain how the supermarket’s proposed £12bn merger with Asda will impact farmers, suppliers and consumers.
Away from the top-tier index, Dixons Carphone shares fell after the retailer revealed 5.9 million customer bank card details and 1.2 million personal data records were hacked last year.
Shares in JD Wetherspoon fell 10p to 1,260p amid news it will replace champagne and wheat beers produced in France and Germany with more drinks from the UK in the run-up to Brexit.
Biffa tumbled 6p to 235.5p after announcing that long-standing boss Ian Wakelin will replaced by the firm’s finance chief Michael Topham after eight years on the job.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Glencore up 14.4p at 398p, Hargreaves Lansdown up 44p at 2,059p, International Consolidated Airlines Group up 12.8p at 712.2p, and EasyJet up 30p at 1,782.5p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Just Eat down 40p at 810p, Standard Chartered down 12.7p at 724.1p, Sky down 23p at 1,335p, and DCC down 115p at 7,170p.