FTSE steadies as major firms trade ex-dividends
By Atul Prakash LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top share index ended broadly flat on Thursday, with some firms including National Grid falling after trading without the attraction of their latest dividend payouts. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index <.FTSE> ended up 0.17 percent at 6,829.20 after closing almost flat in the previous session. It has been trading in a tight range for almost two weeks, but is still up over 9 percent so far this year. National Grid, Vodafone , DCC , Carnival , BT , Mediclinic and Johnson Matthey were among the top fallers, down between 0.6 percent and 2.3 percent, after their shares traded ex-dividends. Babcock International shares fell 1.3 percent after Liberum cut its target price to 960 pence from 1050 pence. However, gains recorded by some companies offset losses. Direct Line Group rose 2.8 percent, the top FTSE 100 gainer, after Morgan Stanley raised its rating on the stock to "overweight" from "equal-weight". Among mid-caps, Britain's biggest pizza delivery firm Domino's Pizza rose more than 3 percent after saying it planned to increase its presence across the country to 1,600 stores after seeing a strong performance from new outlets and a positive market outlook. Heavyweight pharma stocks Glaxosmithkline , Astrazeneca and Shire all rose more than 1 percent, making them the three biggest positive contributors to the FTSE. They rose in line with gains elsewhere in Europe, where the sector rebounded following recent losses. British estate agent Countrywide fell 12 percent to a record low after warning again that its 2016 core earnings would be hit by lower property market activity since Britain's vote to leave the European Union. Its shares have also come under pressure after Britain said on Wednesday it would ban one-off tenant fees charged by estate agents to try to bring down the cost of renting. "Yesterday’s Autumn Statement bombshell banning letting agents from charging upfront fees to tenants couldn’t have come at a worse time for the sector," said Neil Wilson, analyst at ETX Capital. "The trading statement (by Countrywide) presumably doesn’t take stock of this change so we could see a greater adverse effect as a result." (Reporting by Atul Prakash; additional reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Mark Potter)
