Poor performance from Vodafone drags FTSE down

Vodafone dropped 15.75p, or 10.86%, to 129.25, despite increasing its share purchase target by £2bn to £6.5bn for the year to March 2006, after pre-tax profits fell from £4.54bn to £4.11bn in the half-year to September. BT also slipped 1.69% to 203.5p in sympathy with Vodafone, along with Cable & Wireless which declined 3.04% to 119.5p. Diageo fell 26.5p, or 3.07%, to 836p, despite reiterating its expectations for its full-year are unchanged. Previous statements have indicated it expects underlying sales to rise 4% and operating profits to increase 7% in its year to June 2006. Meanwh...