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At 12.30pm (London time) the FTSE^® 100 was trading at 5770, down 0.3%, while the FTSE^® 250 was 0.4% higher at 11,060.

FTSE^® retreats on missed earnings data

UK blue-chip stocks declined for the first time in three days today after worse-than-expected earnings from companies such as Royal Dutch and Unilever. Bumper profit from AstraZeneca - who also announced 7300 job cuts - failed to prevent the FTSE^®'s retreat. To add to the bad news, PMI construction numbers came in worse than expected at 51.4, which were below market expectations of 52.5. The only bright spot this morning was the Xstrata all-stock takeover offer from Glencore.

Royal Dutch Shell today declared that its profit fell 4% in the fourth quarter due to the drop in natural gas prices. Net income fell to $6.5 billion from $6.79 billion a year ago. As a result, its shares dropped by 1.66% to trade at 2227p by 11am (London time).

Another of the laggards today, Unilever was down almost 4% at the back of its missed earnings release. It expects 2012 to be a difficult year on the back of sluggish growth in emerging markets, which accounts for half its revenue, and flat growth from the US and Europe at best.

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