Market Report: FTSE 100 suffers worst weekly drop since June 2013

It has not been a great week to be in equities. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index managed to claw back some gains in the final session, rising 9.68 points to 6,649.39, but it had still fallen 2.76 per cent, or 188.53 points, since last Friday’s close – the worst weekly drop since June 2013.

“Clearly Tesco has weighed on sentiment,” said Jasper Lawler, an analyst at CMC Markets. “The new US tax law also hurt. And, more widely, the European economy looks like an absolute dog and Germany looks like it is sliding along with it… I do think this decline has a bit more to go. A lot of it ties into the US. A couple of times this year we’ve had some pre-earnings season jitters across markets.”

J Sainsbury was among the worst performers, falling 7.9p to 250.1p as Santander warned that the supermarket may cut its dividend when it updates next week. Sports Direct also slipped 17p to 620.5p, with traders expressing unease at boss Mike Ashley’s use of its balance sheet to bet on Tesco.

Betfair was boosted by 34p to 1,172p thanks to bullish notes from both Barclays and JPMorgan.

Shanks Group, which makes fuels and fertilisers from waste products, saw its shares collapse by 12.75p to 90p after it warned that full-year results were likely to be about 15 per cent below expectations. The chief executive, Peter Dilnot, blamed a continuing slowdown at its operations in the Benelux countries.

The microwave and wireless specialist Filtronic lost 5.25p to 20.5p as it warned that its broadband division was likely to miss its annual targets. It blamed the slip-up on exposure to Russia and a delayed order from a key customer.

Andrews Sykes, the air-conditioning and heating equipment rental firm, tumbled 65p to 312.5p on the Alternative Investment Market after reporting first-half revenues £3m lower than last year’s, at £26.7m. While an early spell of warm weather boosted its air-con business, these gains were offset by a decline in its heating business during an “unseasonably mild winter.

Kalimantan Gold was up 3.3p at 4.02p after early surveys revealed an estimated 622 million pounds of copper at one of its mines in Indonesia.