Morning Markets: Retailers continue to drag FTSE down

Retailers reporting dismal sales figures led to the FTSE 100 dropping 0.3% when it opened this mornin...

Retailers reporting dismal sales figures led to the FTSE 100 dropping 0.3% when it opened this morning. Home Retail, owner of Homebase and Argos, and John Lewis both said profits had suffered in the first half of the year whilst travel companies also struggled. On its opening the FTSE 100 dropped 0.3% and the All Share lose 0.4%. The share price of Home Retail retreated by 8% as it announced it will write down the value of Homebase by 70% and Argos had the worst quarterly sales for nearly a decade. Housing market woes hit sales of furniture and homeware at John Lewis, which was also ...