Market report: City’s turned off tech firms as sell-off crosses the pond

The sell-off of tech shares on Wall Street made its way across the Atlantic today as some of London’s biggest software companies fell out of favour.

Shares in Micro Focus, the business software group which has lined up a £7 billion takeover of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s software assets, tumbled 63p, or 2.5% to 2436p. Sage, the accounting software firm, dropped 12.5p, or 1.8%, to 685p as investors searched for digital companies to ditch.

On the mid-cap index, cyber-security firm Sophos was 13.53p, or 3%, off at 436.37p and online takeaway delivery company Just Eat slipped 13p to 670p.

It follows the dumping of big Silicon Valley firms listed on Nasdaq on Friday afternoon. Apple slumped 4%, with other tech giants such as Google parent Alphabet, and Facebook also on the wane.

Investors are starting to question whether the rally, which has driven the iPhone-maker’s shares up 30% this year, might have run out of steam.

A weaker pound may have boosted the FTSE 100 on Friday after the shock election result, but profit-taking sent the blue-chip index down 25.97 points, or 0.35%, to 7501.36 at the start of the week with uncertainty reigning just days before Brexit negotiations begin.

Investors were lukewarm on energy companies today as British Gas owner Centrica rose 1p to 199.8p and United Utilities slipped 6p to 987.5p.

Barclays analysts suggested they could both rise “if disruption from the UK general election and resulting hung parliament lead to a delay in introducing a tariff cap”.

Investors hung up on TalkTalk as Berenberg analysts downgraded to Sell, arguing that Sir Charles Dunstone has “a mountain to climb to get back to sustainable profitable growth” after returning to the ailing telecoms business he founded. The shares fell 2.9p to 168.9p.

Used-car dealer Motorpoint improved 2.88p to 149.13p despite revealing that pre-tax profits plunged 30% to £12 million in the year to March.

Among the tiddlers, Echo Energy, formerly Independent Resources, jumped 2.11p, or 14%, to 17.74p after hiring Rockhopper’s chief operating officer Fiona MacAulay as chief executive to lead exploration in South America, having given up hunting for oil in North Africa and the Mediterranean.