London’s index of heavyweight shares has, as the hoary old market report’s phrase has it, fallen out of bed with a bump.
The FTSE 100 index was down 175 points (2.4%) at 7,172, with just half a dozen of the index’s constituents in positive territory.
One of those was BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A) (BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A)), which was up 1.6% at 179.2p after it agreed to spin its BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A) broadcast arm into a new 50-50 joint venture with the newly merged Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASDAQ:WBD) (Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASDAQ:WBD)) , which owns Eurosport.
The telecoms giant also released its full-year results.
“'BT Group saw revenue fall 2% as expected in the financial year as supply chain problems and a delayed recovery from Covid-19 took weighed on its topline, but a tight handle on costs meant adjusted Ebitda rose 2% to £7.6 billion and came in higher than expected. That will install greater confidence around BT Group’s ambition to grow annual revenue for the first time in six years and deliver higher adjusted Ebitda of at least £7.9 billion in the 2023 financial year,” said City Index market analyst, Joshua Warner.
Also defying the trend after results was Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.) (Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.)), up 0.6% at 80.98p.