3 Shares That Lost to the FTSE Today

Updated

LONDON -- The FTSE 100 (INDEX: ^FTSE) turned downward again today, dropping 0.56% to 5,787. There's really not much macroeconomic news around except that Mark Carney, head of the Bank of Canada and a former Goldman Sachs employee, will become governor of the Bank of England.

But some share prices are falling, and they might produce buying opportunities for those who do their own research and dig a bit deeper. Here are three that dropped today.

SDL (ISE: SDL.L)
A profit warning from language software specialist SDL sent the shares into a slump, dropping 14.2% to 438.5 pence. The firm warned of a profit shortfall against current expectations of between 3 million pounds and 4 million pounds, saying: "Management forecasts for the year are now considered to be too optimistic against market expectations."


After similar recent falls, the SDL price is now down around 35% over the past few months, with pre-update forecasts already putting the shares on a P/E of 14, with a low dividend yield of 1.2% expected.

Centamin (ISE: CEY.L)
Egypt-based Centamin, which was threatened with the loss of its mining permit for its Sukari mine last month and saw its share price crash as a result, announced the next step in its appeal process today -- and saw 6.3% knocked off the share price to 60.6 pence.

Centamin suspended gold exports while the appeal process was underway, but due to the requirement for working capital, it's preparing to resume exports to keep the needed cash flowing.

Quintain (ISE: QED.L)
Quintain Estates & Development saw its shares fall 3.2% to 52 pence today after the property investor released first-half results. The firm has revalued its assets and reported a fall in net asset value per share, coupled with a pre-tax loss for the six months to September.

Basic NAV per share fell from 116 pence to 106 pence, while a 3.7 million pound pre-tax profit for the first half last year turned into a loss of 29.1 million pounds.

Finally, how does Britain's ace investor Neil Woodford avoid share price falls? He goes for a strategy of buying solid blue-chip shares paying dependable long-term dividends. And in doing so, he's built a record of beating the FTSE for nine straight years. If you want to see how Woodford manages to beat the market, the free Motley Fool report "8 Shares Held By Britain's Super Investor" takes a look at some of his key holdings. To get your copy, click here while it's still available.

The article 3 Shares That Lost to the FTSE Today originally appeared on Fool.com.

Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days.

Copyright © 1995 - 2012 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Advertisement