The troubled mobile phone store
owner Phones4U entered administration after EE joined Vodafone and O2 in
cancelling their contracts to supply the embattled high street chain. Vodafone share price rose after reports
emerged that it and EE were looking at buying sections of Phones4U.
ASOS issued their third profit
warning in less than a year, sending its share price tumbling. There was contagion in the sector, with other
retailers, including JD Sports & Next firmly down.
Crawley based TUI Travel was of
interest as talk of cash returns in the wake of the £5.2bn merger with its
German parent sent the tourism business flying to the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard.
easyJet performed better after
announcing that it would also pay back some cash to shareholders. The British
airline, now the largest by number of passengers carried, has reached an
agreement with Airbus to exercise existing purchase rights over 27 current
generation A320 aircraft for delivery between 2015 and 2018. These aircraft are
more efficient than the current model used and should lead to cost savings.
This will mean easyJet will have a 35% larger fleet by 2019.
Weakness in resources stocks
helped to dampen excitement over Scotland's No vote. Companies seeing the
majority of the relief rally gains were RBS, Lloyds, Standard Life and Aberdeen
Asset Management, whereas mining companies were hit by further falls in
commodities prices and concern of an earlier than expected US interest rate
rise.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba
priced its shares at $68 in the run up to the largest ever initial public
offering (IPO). Overwhelming demand saw
the IPO initially raise $21.8 billion and then sent Alibaba's stock surging 38%
in its debut last Friday.
Finally Tesco has lowered its
forecast for first-half profit by £250m, its third warning this year, after
finding a fault in its accounts, in the latest blow to the reputation of
Britain's biggest grocer.