Britain’s blue-chip share index fails to follow its US counterpart

It has also been a rough couple of months for tracksuit tycoon Mike Ashley

Britain’s blue-chip share index failed to follow its US counterpart yesterday and move into positive territory for the first time in the year.

On Friday, the S&P 500 crept above the levels seen on the 31 December. But hopes the FTSE 100 would do the same dissipated after a directionless market drifted lower.

The index ended 0.08 per cent down at 6,184.58. It needs to break 6,242 to move into positive territory.

As the dust settled on Friday’s anti-climactic end to the takeover battle for Argos-owner Home Retail, victorious J Sainsbury, up 3.3p to 276.5p, emerged out of the fog with a small spring in its step thanks to a price target upgrade from Nomura. This was despite Friday’s close when shares in both Sainsbury’s and Home Retail crashed.

It has also been a rough couple of months for tracksuit tycoon Mike Ashley. But he had a rare bit of good news when Sports Direct was upgraded by analysts at brokerage Liberum. Despite falling out of the FTSE 100, facing contempt of Parliament charges for shunning MPs and getting stick for his workers’ pay and conditions, Ashley will be pleased to learn the broker thinks Sports Direct shares are worth 510p. But the shares still ended down 1.3p at 423.8p.

Brick-maker Michelmersh crumbled 4p to 74.5p, despite building a healthy increase in operating profits last year. It also gave a friendly hello to fellow brickie Ibstock, which listed last year, pointing out that the arrival of another masonry master around the stock market kiln would bring “greater visibility” to the brickmaking fraternity, which has been walled off from public markets for many years.

Miton Group, the indie British fund manager, was left nursing a sore profit and loss account this year after choppy markets punctured a hole in some of its funds. Profits were more than £2m lower than last year but Miton ended the year on high after a late surge drove assets under management up by a third to £2.78bn versus last year. Fellow investors showed no sympathy in the last minute asset boost, sending shares in the thinly traded stock down 1p to 29.75p.