Market Report: Pets at Home was the runt of the mid-cap litter

The aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce flew 8.5p higher to 687.5p

Overall Pets at Home revenues were up 6 per cent to £404.5m (Getty)

Pets at Home was the runt of the mid-cap litter after a disappointing first-half trading update dashed hopes of a sales revival for the pet supplies retailer.

Like-for-like sales rose 1.8 per cent in the second quarter, only slightly better than the poor first quarter, while overall revenues were up 6 per cent to £404.5m.

Brokers were disappointed by the performance but remained upbeat about the company’s longer-term prospects. Goldman Sachs said the key drivers of the stock – advanced nutrition, veterinary services and groomers – all fared well, while Liberum urged clients to take advantage of any share price falls and buy.

Those falls indeed materialised as the company racked up its worst day since floating 18 months ago. It slumped 22.7p, or 7.3 per cent, to 288.5p, just two days after hitting an all-time high.

The Bank of Japan decided against injecting life into its flagging economy in the form of more quantitative easing, but hinted that it would not oppose doing so in future.

It was a similar statement to the one from the US Federal Reserve this week on interest rates and did not give traders much direction as the FTSE 100 drifted 34.71 points lower to 6,361.09.

The aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce flew 8.5p higher to 687.5p on the back of better than expected third-quarter results from Airbus. The news also prevented further profit warning-fuelled falls at the aerospace engineer Meggitt, up 6.3 to 353.6p.

Cineworld retreated from record highs, 42p lower at 552p as Canaccord Genuity downgraded the cinema operator from buy to sell, arguing that current box office smashes including the new Bond movie and the upcoming Star Wars reboot won’t be matched next year.

A share sale at Shoe Zone, down 4.5p to 202p, wrongfooted investors. The chief executive Anthony Smith cashed in £2.6m worth of shares, while chief operating officer Charles Smith dumped £2.1m.

Elsewhere, spoken word clips group Audioboom, backed by property tycoon Nick Candy, shot up 1.25p, or 29 per cent, to 5.5p as rumours circulated about a possible takeover.