Tesco's 92 per cent slump in half-year profits fuelled concerns about the health of the supermarket sector, although investors still found cheer after positive eurozone data.
The retail giant spooked investors by declining to give guidance on full-year results due to the current turmoil surrounding its recent profits over-statement.
But the FTSE 100 Index lifted 19.4 points to 6419.2 after the latest eurozone manufacturing data hit a two-month high.
The pound fell against the dollar, at 1.60, after lacklustre UK manufacturing and retail data. Sterling was also down against the euro, at 1.27.
Unilever's slide of almost 4 per cent or 94p to 2440p came as the Anglo-Dutch maker of Magnum ice cream and Flora margarine reported underlying sales growth of 2.1 per cent for the third quarter, down from 3.2 per cent earlier in the year.
The difficulties at Tesco will have impacted on Unilever as the supermarket giant reported a slide in UK sales and revealed that an investigation into overstated profit expectations concluded it had an impact of £263 million.
The figure was broadly in line with previous estimates but Tesco revealed that the problem relates to more than just the current financial year.
Shore Capital retail analyst Darren Shirley said this raised "all sorts of questions to our minds as to what has gone on in prior years".
Tesco shares were the biggest faller in the top flight, sliding almost 7 per cent or 12p to 171p, while Sainsbury's dropped 4.4p to 237.2p and Morrisons declined 4.8p to 153.1p.
Mr Kipling and Oxo owner Premier Foods has taken the brunt of the demanding conditions in the grocery sector as it warned that trading profits were now likely to be towards the lower end of City forecasts.
This was after a 4.1 per cent reduction in branded product sales in the third quarter.
Shares fell almost 15 per cent to 29.25p as the update increased jitters ahead of the company's busiest trading period.
Elsewhere in the retail sector, Debenhams shares rose 1 per cent or 0.6p to 63.4p after it reported a 24 per cent drop in full-year profits but said there were signs of improvement following a change in its promotional strategy.
Shares in estate agent Foxtons tumbled almost 20 per cent or 40.3p to 165p after it said property sales commissions were 7.8 per cent lower in the most recent quarter due to a sharp slowdown in the London property market.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 Index were International Airlines Group up 12.8p at 384p, Intertek up 73p at 2595p, GlaxoSmithKline up 35p at 1412p and CRH up 22p at 1377p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 Index were Tesco down 12p at 171p, Tullow Oil down 22p at 505.5p, Unilever down 94p at 2440p and Morrisons down 4.8p to 153.1p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article