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After starting slowly the FTSE 100 was in full blown retreat by lunchtime on Tuesday as travel and banking stocks slumped. At midday the index was down 0.65% at 7,101.67.
Computer services company Computercenter rallied 2.5% to £29.56, having lifted its annual guidance, citing robust trading across all its geographies in July and August.
Computercentre said that even if it delivered a flat second-half performance, it would end the year 10% ahead of current market expectations for adjusted pre-tax profit.
Specialist distribution group Bunzl dropped 2.8% to £26.06 as it booked a 12% rise in first-half profit, but stuck to its full-year guidance.
Bunzl declared an interim dividend of 16.2p per share, up 2.5% year-on-year, and confirmed it had made two relatively small acquisitions in Spain, for undisclosed sums.
Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline fell 0.7% to £14.654 after it announced that it and SK Bioscience were entering late-stage clinical trials for their Covid-19 vaccine.
Results from the phase-three study were expected in the first half of 2022.
Regional property investor Regional REIT firmed 2.7% to 90.6p on news that it had acquired a portfolio of 31 predominately multi-let office assets in the UK for a combined £236 million.
The acquisition would be satisfied via the issue of £83.1 million worth of new shares, at 98.6p each, £76.7 million of existing cash resources and additional borrowings of £76.2 million.
Training solutions group Pennant International slumped 7.5% to 30.06p as it forecast a first-half loss after its performance was hampered by contract issues with General Dynamics.
Pennant said it expected a 'significant' improvement in the second half and forecast positive operating earnings for that period.
Internet platform company CentralNic jumped 5.2% to 101p, having forecast full-year profit and revenue at the upper end of market expectations.
CentralNic's first-half losses had narrowed, thanks to a combination of underlying organic growth and acquisitions.
Diagnostics group Oxford BioDynamics added 0.6% to 49.81p, bolstered by news that it had won a $0.91 million grant in the US for cancer research.