The London market steadied this morning after the turmoil of Wednesday’s sell-off which saw £52 billion wiped off the value of top-flight shares.
The FTSE 100 Index was up 17.1 points to 5691.1 in the wake of the market officially slumping into bear market territory in the previous session – falling 20% from last April’s all-time high of 7104. Shares initially opened around 50 points up.
Top-flight shares fell more than 3%, or 203.2 points, on Wednesday, hitting their lowest level since November 2012.
Asian markets lost around 2% overnight, but European markets were steady this morning, with Germany’s DAX and the Cac 40 in France both flat.
In stocks, education giant Pearson was the biggest riser in the top flight – up almost 9%, or 57.5p at 715.5p, after it said it would axe around 4,000 jobs as part of a group-wide cost-cutting plan.
The firm cut its full-year earnings guidance, pencilling in around £720 million in underlying operating profits for 2015, and warned that earnings were set to fall further in 2016, to between £580 million and £620 million before restructuring costs.
But the group hopes its turnaround efforts will cut annual costs by around £350 million and return operating profits to at least £800 million a year in 2018.
Royal Mail lifted 14p to 435.5p after it said it delivered 130 million parcels across the UK over Christmas, up 6% on a year ago.
In the nine months to December 27, it said parcel volumes rose 4%, although price pressure from rivals saw revenues grow by just 1