By Kit Rees and Alistair Smout
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s top share index fell on Thursday after reaching this year’s highest close the day before, following a drop in the shares of miner Anglo American (AAL.L) and Sky (SKYB.L).
Sky fell 4.2 percent on doubts over the rights to air Bundesliga matches in Germany.
Germany’s Federal Cartel Office this month approved plans to keep any single buyer from winning all live TV rights to Bundesliga matches. The ruling is expected to raise costs for Sky, which secured all current live rights in 2012, as competition increases.
“We think sell-side analysts expect the cost of Bundesliga rights (for 2017/18 to 2020/21) to increase by between 25 percent and 60 percent,” Numis analysts said in a note.
The pay-TV group reported that it had attracted 177,000 new customers in its third quarter, helping revenue rise 5 percent for the first nine months, in line with forecasts.
The biggest faller. however, was miner Anglo American (AAL.L), which was down 5.6 percent after reporting lower first-quarter production across most of its mining businesses.
Additionally, a significant number of the miner’s shareholders voted against CEO Mark Cutifani’s 3.4 million-pound ($ 4.9 million) pay deal for 2015.
While the pay remuneration report was passed by 58.36 percent in favour to 41.64 percent against, the company is to launch a fresh review of executive pay.
“Anglo American’s results this morning failed to provide any inspiration, whilst concern over the potential for an investor backlash over executive pay at this afternoon’s AGM also made for a choppy session,” Tony Cross, market analyst at Trustnet Direct, said in a note.
The index (.FTSE) was down 28.82 points, or 0.5 percent at 6,381.44 points at its close. On Wednesday, it closed at 6,410.26, its highest since early December.
The blue chip index pared losses from earlier in the session when ECB President Mario Draghi spoke at a news conference following the European Central Bank’s decision to hold interest rates steady.
Draghi said that interest rates would remain at present or lower levels for an extended time and well past the horizon of asset purchases.
The ECB is also set to start buying euro zone corporate bonds in June.
Analysts said that it wasn’t clear whether there would be further rate cuts as Draghi said that inflation rates could pick up in the second half of 2016.
“So (Draghi) thinks that growth is moderate but steady, so a little bit of confusion there as to whether or not we’ll see any additional interest rate cuts,” Brenda Kelly, head analyst at London Capital Group, said.
“Ultimately, he’s not really all that sure, but it all depends on what happens with the oil price.”
Shares trading without the right to their latest dividend also weighed on the market. Capita (CPI.L), Mondi (MNDI.L) and BAE Systems (BAES.L) fell as they traded ex-rights. In all, ex-dividend shares trimmed around 4.5 points off the market.
The top riser on the FTSE 100 was equipment rentals firm Ashtead Group (AHT.L), which gained 3.7 percent with analysts citing a rise in shares of U.S. peer United Rentals (URI).
Ashtead also reported a positive update, saying that it saw its full year results to be towards the top end of expectations.
Darty (DRTY.L) posed its biggest daily gain in more than six months, soaring 22.8 percent after a bidding war for the small-cap electrical retailer between France’s Fnac (FNAC.PA) and Conforama, which is part of South African retail conglomerate Steinhoff (SNHG.DE), heated up.
(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
