London shares fall in post-Olympic hangover

London shares drifted lower in opening trade as Britain's stock market experienced a post Olympic hangover.

The benchmark FTSE 100 index eased 17.58 points or 0.30 percent to 5,829.53 points at 8:46 am.

The losses come after global shares enjoyed broad gains last week on expectations the European Central Bank will restart its bond-buying scheme to support under-pressure economies such as Spain and Italy.

There are also hopes the US Federal Reserve will unveil its own drive to pump cash into the economy, while another batch of poor trade figures from China on Friday increased the likelihood Beijing will also intervene to kickstart growth.

"Despite all the uncertainty over global economic growth, it's important to note that the (Dow Jones Industrial Average) remains not far from its year high," Kenichi Hirano, market analyst at Tachibana Securities in Tokyo, said on Monday.

Petrofac was the biggest London loser, shedding 73 pence or 4.66 percent to 1,494 pence after the oil and gas services company unveiled its first half results.

Revenue jumped 20 percent to $3.2 bn and net profit surged 32 percent to $325.3 mn but the company admitted that the order book has shrunk to $8.9 bn at the end of June from $11.4 bn a year earlier.

Petrofac's chief executive Ayman Asfari said: "As previously indicated, over the past few months we have seen delays in certain contract tender processes with a number of anticipated awards moving from 2012 into 2013.

"Whilst these delays impact the expected level of 2012 new orders for Onshore Engineering & Construction, we continue to expect our strategy to deliver earnings growth in 2013 and beyond."

India-based resources group Vedanta dropped 2.16 percent to 1,493 pence.

Standard Chartered gained 1.43 percent to 1,345 pence, continuing to recover from last week's plunge that followed allegations the bank handled large volumes of Iranian business in a way which is illegal in the United States.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/london-shares-fall-post-olympic-hangover-080250393.html

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