London shares were down on Thursday after overnight falls in the US and Asia, but corporates provided interest.
The FTSE 100 Index drifted 6.23 points to 5667 in early trading after the Shanghai Composite dropped 96 points and the Dow Jones lost 249 points to 15,767.
Oil and gold were both off, with a barrel of Brent crude dipping 1.3% to US$27.5 and an ounce of the precious metal dimming 0.47% to US$1,101.
Commodity stocks were mixed, leaving retail and miscellaneous stocks to set the pace.
Car accessory and bike retailer Halfords (LON:HFD) motored 31.1p to 356.1p as it buoyed investors with news of higher Christmas sales and left annual profit forecasts unchanged.
Education publisher Pearson (LON:PSON) bounced 56p to 713.5p as it warned on profits but maintained its dividend and announced a £320mln shake-up.
At the other end of the scale, investors lost their appetite for Premier Foods (LON:PFD) after the Kipling cake and Sharwood's curry sauce maker said an unexpectedly mild December and a decision to reduce promotional activity of Ambrosia held back grocery sales in the third quarter. Shares fell 2.5p to 36.75p.
Energy utility SSE (LON:SSE) also lost its spark by 52p to 1333p as the UK competition regulator delayed the publication of its long-awaited energy supply review from this month to the spring.
Meanwhile, signs that the market downturn was unlikely to end any time soon came in the form of a report from data firm Markit showing that current Footsie short interest stands at 1.75% - the most since the start of the market correction.
Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB), which recovered 3p to 1280.5p following a profit warning on Wednesday, now has 5% of its shares shorted.
Elsewhere, Fox Marble (LON:FOX) softened 1.5p to 11p as the Balkans-focused miner forecast 2015 sales of about €230,000 with most of the existing 2015 order book pushed into the first half of 2016.
Alliance Pharma lost 0.75p to 48.25p despite predicting a rise of more than 10% in 2015 group revenue to £48.2mln, excluding JV sales.
MARKET PREVIEW
Major benchmarks may be close to bear market territory, but, the FTSE 100 is predicted to open slightly higher on Thursday.
US stocks last night pared losses late in the session, though considered in isolation the closing levels will still be troubling for many investors.
As oil prices took another leg down, to below US$27 at some points, the Dow Jones and the other Wall Street benchmarks plunged.
The Dow ended Wednesday some 250 points, 1.5%, lower at 15,766 while the S&P 500 lost just over 1% to 1,859 and the Nasdaq edged down 0.12% to 4,471.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei shed 2.45 to 16,017. The Shanghai Composite dipped 1.7% to 2,925 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.35% to 18,634.
After yesterday’s 203 point fall on the FTSE 100 investors appear look to be able to catch breathe on Thursday’s open.
The blue-chip benchmark is predicted to open about 20 points higher than Wednesday’s close.
IG Markets is this morning calling the FTSE 100 at 5,680 to 5,685.