Market Report: Newbies pushed into the red

Newly promoted stocks across the Footsie were yesterday welcomed with a round of profit-taking pushing the newbies into the red.

The blue chip index was joined by Royal Mail and industrial equipment hire company Ashtead – both promptly fell to the bottom while newcomers to the mid-tier table also got the wooden spoon. Royal Mail lost 10p to 580p, while Ashtead was 9p weaker at 764.5p. FTSE 250 retailers JD Sports (off 150p to 1,344p) and Carphone Warehouse (down 6.4p to 271.6p) accompanied theme park group and recently listed Merlin Entertainments, which was 4.3p poorer at 361.7p. Sunny Dhanjal, senior trader at Accendo Markets, said the falls were a “result of profit-taking ahead of the Christmas break”.

Despite the falls, the wider market was continuing its late starting Santa rally and finished a fourth consecutive day of gains with the FTSE 100 up 72.03 points to 6,678.61p.

Top of the benchmark index was smartphone microchip designer Arm – 42p better at 1,110p after news Apple had agreed a deal with China’s biggest mobile phone group.Analysts at Peel Hunt said the technology sector was the best performer across the Footsie this year.

BAE Systems agreed a contract with South Korea and the US government for upgrades and systems integration for a fleet of more than 130 F-16 aircraft. It shot up 8.5p to 430.6p.

FTSE 250-listed gold miner Centamin continued to advance after upgrades from analysts over the past few days and glistened 2.11p brighter at 42.25p.

After renewed speculation at the weekend that cake-maker Premier Foods is planning a rights issue in the new year, it issued a statement to say a review is “ongoing” but “no decisions have been made” and it weakened 5p to 125.5p.

Aim-listed potash explorer Sirius Minerals agreed a deal to supply Sichuan Agricultural Means and picked up 2.25p to 12.25p.

India focused windpower producer Mytrah Energy announced a 50 per cent increase in operational capacity and floated up 1p to 77.875p, while Action Hotels raised £30.5m and listed on Aim yesterday; it booked a 1p rise to 65p.