Wood Group (J) Share News (WG.)

Wood Group was in the bottom spot after it warned problems with its Canadian business would have an impact on earnings growth. The group said it was scaling back its full-year EBITA growth guidance for its engineering division from 15% to 10-15%, reflecting some project delays and further weakening in Canada. EBITA in the first half was up 18.6% year-on-year. CRH also weighed heavily after it swung to a half year loss. The building materials firm reported a loss before tax of €71m, down from €102m the year before, while sales fell 3.0% to €8.01bn. Mining stocks were also out of favour today as results from BHP Billiton and Glencore Xstrata failed to impress. BHP said lower commodity prices wiped $8.9bn off its underlying earnings which plunged 22.4% in the year to the end of June, while Glencore Xstrata was forced to write down $7.7bn in assets as it reported a 9.0% drop in first-half adjusted EBITDA. Even housebuilder Persimmon fell into the red despite a strong jump early on. The company said that first-half profits jumped 38% and its order book was running 21% ahead of last year as the government's 'Help to Buy' scheme boosted demand. Defensive stocks were in demand today as relatively 'riskier' assets (such as those in the resources sectors) were sold off. Telecom giant BT, utilities peers National Grid and United Utilities and pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline were all making modest gains. FTSE 100 - RisersFresnillo (FRES) 1,177.00p +1.73%BT Group (BT.A) 326.00p +1.18%ITV (ITV) 160.60p +1.01%Compass Group (CPG) 866.00p +0.99%National Grid (NG.) 740.00p +0.89%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,657.00p +0.73%Centrica (CNA) 387.60p +0.54%Intertek Group (ITRK) 3,211.00p +0.50%AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,202.50p +0.50%United Utilities Group (UU.) 687.00p +0.44%FTSE 100 - FallersWood Group (John) (WG.) 826.00p -8.53%Prudential (PRU) 1,136.00p -4.22%CRH (CRH) 1,372.00p -3.79%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,163.00p -3.08%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,475.00p -3.02%Standard Life (SL.) 335.50p -2.84%Persimmon (PSN) 1,135.00p -2.74%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 73.02p -2.64%Glencore Xstrata (GLEN) 294.80p -2.37%Experian (EXPN) 1,174.00p -2.17%NR