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UK stocks extended losses at midday Tuesday as a recent recovery rally was sullied by disappointing updates from tobacco bellwether British American Tobacco and homebuilder Bellway.
At 12:00, the benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 1.7%, at 6,362.62 points.
Online women's fashion retailer Sosandar jumped 27.5% to 11.2p, even as it warned of a deeper-than-expected annual loss owing to margin contraction.
Sosander also said its revenue for the year through March had more than doubled. In the new financial year, sales had risen 62% over April and May, helping to trim losses.
Personal care distributor Venture Life rallied 12% to 73.4p on announcing that it would 'comfortably exceed' market expectations for the current year.
Information technology company Aveva climbed 4.3% to £41.9, having held its dividend steady at 29p per share after it nearly doubled annual profit on higher revenue and margins.
Heavy construction materials group SigmaRoc added 3.6% to 43p on announcing that it recorded positive earnings during each of the first five months of the year, and that sales had bounced back in May.
Scientific and medical equipment provider Oxford Instruments firmed 2.1% to £12.8 on reporting a 13% rise in annual profit, even as sales weakened in the latter part of its financial year due to the Covid-19 crisis.
Language and intellectual property support services group RWS was fell 1.2% to 618p after it booked a 6.3% fall in first-half profit but held its dividend steady amid a 'limited' impact from the Covid-19 crisis.
RWS also announced that it had acquired Dublin-based machine translation group Iconic Translation Machines for $10m, plus additional deferred consideration of up to $10m in shares, plus Indian counterpart Webdunia.com, for $21m.
Internet of things group Telit Communications dropped 1.3% to 124.8p after Britain's Financial Conduct Authority decided to not take enforcement action against the company after probing its market disclosures.
Self-storage group Big Yellow fell 2.3% to £10.3 as it became one of few companies to up its dividend during the Covid-19 crisis, after stronger sales helped underpin a rise in its annual earnings.
Bellway dropped 3.1% to £28.7 on warning that home sales activity would be 'severely constrained' until lockdown restrictions were lifted further.
Bellway said home sales fell in August through May. All sales offices had reopened in England by 1 June, and construction activity had recommenced on around 230 sites
Semiconductor company CML Microsystems shed 3.2% to 272p after it cut its dividend as its profit more than halved.
British American Tobacco slipped 4.6% to £29.8 after it downgraded its revenue and earnings guidance, as the Covid-19 pandemic hurt its performance in emerging markets.
British American Tobacco said earnings growth in 2020 would be at a 'mid single-digit' percentage, instead of previous guidance of 'high single-digit' growth.
Diagnostics company Omega Diagnostics fell 14% to 53.3p, after it made an impairment charge which overshadowed news it would report better than expected earnings and extend a Covid-19 antibody test agreement with partner Mologic.