Archived article
Please note that tax, investment, pension and ISA rules can change and the information and any views contained in this article may now be inaccurate.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.35% to 7,358.01 by midday as index heavyweight AstraZeneca disappointed with its third quarter update.
Oil majors BP and Shell were also down more than 1% as oil prices fell amid pressure from a rise in the dollar.
Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca fell 3.9% to £90.73 after swinging to a third-quarter loss as higher costs dented margins and offset a surge in revenue.
For the third quarter, pre-tax losses were £2.0 billion from a profit of £853 million a year earlier, while revenue jumped 50% to $9.87 billion.
Homebuilder Redrow rose 3.4% to 641.80p after upgrading its forecast on revenue, forecasting that results for fiscal 2022 would approach those achieved in 2019 amid rising house prices and an increase in its order book.
Shares in critical personal protection company Avon Protection (AVON) plunged 42% lower to £11.01 after saying that it will undertake a strategic review of its body armour business after the body armour plates product failed in 'First Article Testing', which will significantly delay approval of the product.
Engineering group John Wood fell 7.6% to 186.15p after initiating a strategic review of the part of its consulting business facing the built environment end market.
The company also said that the rate of recovery in its projects business had been slower than anticipated largely due to the deferral of activity and awards into 2022.
Engineering group Pressure Technologies fell 1.9% to 77p as its chairman Sir Roy Gardner is set to step down from his role in March 2022.
The company also also reported narrower adjusted losses even as revenue slipped amid 'difficult trading conditions.'