FTSE 100 closes 1 7 down

The FTSE 100 experienced a drop on Thursday (October 2nd) closing 111 down at 6,446.

It had been a day of mixed fortunes across the markets with budget airline Easyjet among the top performers. The company ended the day 5.25 per cent up at 1443p, a change of 72 points thanks to a boost in revenues. Easyjet reported a revision of its pre-tax profits, increasing to between £575 million and £580 million improving investor confidence.

Easyjet has benefited from the Air France pilot strike which saw the French airline cancel half of its flights during the two weeks of industrial action. The company reported lost revenue in the hundreds of millions before the strike was eventually ended on September 28th as it prepares for further talks.

The supermarket sector also saw a number of big names perform poorly throughout the day. Sainsbury's started brightly bouncing back from a disappointing trading statement on Wednesday where it reported a third successive quarter of falling sales but ultimately finished four per cent down. Morrisons and Tesco had similar fortunes closing 0.6 per cent down and 1.1 per cent down respectively.

Companies within the supermarket sector are facing increasing competition from discounters such as Aldi and Lidl. The low-cost grocery chains have been performing strongly in recent months gaining a bigger market share and reporting huge growth in profits.

It is in stark contrast to the more traditional names with Asda and Morrisons announcing redundancies in the past year while Tesco is being investigated after vastly overstating its profit forecast.

Elsewhere on the market, Ted Baker grew by 0.6 per cent following an increase in first-half profits while Domino's Pizza also recorded a one per cent rise after seeing underlying sales grow by 12.9 per cent in the 13 weeks to September 28th.

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