Sector movers: London market dragged lower by aerospace and telecom stocks

London market slipped back into negative territory on Tuesday, having marginally avoided it at the start of the week, with aerospace and defence, and telecommunications stocks dragging the market lower.

At the close of trading, the blue chip FTSE 100 was down 19.62 points or 0.29% at 6769.07, while the FTSE 250 was down 25.53 or 0.14% at 17755.89. Rolls-Royce reversed the previous session's gains to end among the biggest blue chip fallers shedding 2.23% or 17.50p at 765.50p.

The company was recently selected by SAUDIA, the national carrier of Saudi Arabia, to provide long-term TotalCare engine service support worth $1.3bn for Airbus A330 Regional aircraft triggering Monday’s price uptick. Other stocks in the sector, including BAE Systems (down 1.70%), Cobham (down 1.54%) and QinetiQ were also trading lower.

Telecommunications stocks were trading lower as well, with the headline sector index ending 1.25% lower as Vodafone (down 1.26%), Avanti Communications Group (down 1.19%) and Inmarsat (down 0.54%) ended down on the day.

Home construction stocks were down despite Galliford Try (down 1.10%) signing contracts with Birmingham City University to build the £46m Conservatoire in central Birmingham. The new building will move the Conservatoire from its existing home to the Eastside area of the city centre. The facility will house teaching facilities and a 500-seat auditorium as well as two additional performance spaces.

However, shares of the company’s rivals - Barratt Development (down 2.49%), Persimmon (down 1.97%), Taylor Wimpey (down 1.89%), Berkeley Group (down 1,.70%), Crest Nicholson (down 1.38%) and Bovis Homes (down 1.35%) - fared even worse.

Financial services stocks were dragged lower by IG Group (down 6.82%) after the company announced the departure of its long-serving CEO and posted a 13% drop in full-year pre-tax profit, after a hit it took from the surge in the Swiss franc in January. For the year ended 31 May, IG’s pre-tax profit was down to £169.5m from £194.9m last year.