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UK stocks remained in negative territory at midday Tuesday as investors digested rising unemployment statistics and disappointing news that US pharmaceutical form Johnson & Johnson had paused a Covid-19 vaccine trial after a participant became ill.
At 12:00, the benchmark FTSE 100 index was 0.4% lower at 5,977 points.
Britain's unemployment rate rose to 4.5% in the three months through August, up from 4.1% previously and above market expectations of a more modest increase to 4.3%. The claimant count, however, rose by a lower-than-expected 28,100.
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Insurance investor BP Marsh posted close to a 10% rise in net asset value to £142.6 million or 396.2p per share in the six months to July. The total shareholder return for the period was 4.8% including the July dividend.
The firm continues to invest, subscribing for a 30% cumulative preferred share holding in US specialist insurer SAGE as well as taking a further 15% stake in EC3 Brokers, taking its holding to 35% through a £1.5 million injection of capital. The Shares jumped 15% to 270p.
Auto retailer Marshall Motor rallied 11% to 133p, having upgraded its annual profit guidance as trading continued to bounce back strongly following an easing of the UK's national lockdown.
Marshall Motor's pre-tax profit for the year through December was now seen falling to £15 million, up from previous guidance of breakeven. Third-quarter revenue had jumped 30%, including like-for-like sales growth of 18%.
Call-center software provider Netcall rallied 4% to 50p, after it hiked its dividend 25% as higher sales underpinned an improvement in its underlying earnings.
Early stage investor IP Group rose 3.5% to 81.8p after portfolio company Oxford Nanopore Technologies raised an additional £84.4 million of new capital from existing and new investors.
Power utility SSE firmed 3% to £13.7 on news that it had agreed to sell its 50% share in two energy-from-waste ventures to an infrastructure fund managed by First Sentier Investors for £995 million.
SSE had in June identified the interests in the Multifuel Energy ventures as sales targets, as part of a £2 billion asset disposal strategy.
Real estate portal OnTheMarket dropped 0.2% to 101.3p despite swinging to a first-half profit after it boosted revenue, after cutting back on marketing costs.
OnTheMarket said it expected to achieve a 'broadly breakeven' adjusted operating profit for the full year, amid a rise in second-half revenue and costs.
Motor insurance provider Sabre Insurance fell 1.2% to 250p as it forecast lower sales, but said it had the balance-sheet strength to pay an attractive final dividend.
Sabre Insurance said its revenue for the year through December was still expected to fall around 10%, having dropped 9% in the nine months through September, an improvement from the 14% decline recorded for the first half.
Nanomaterials developer Nanoco fell 6% to 12.9p after posting a deeper annual loss after its revenue slumped following the cancellation of a key contract.