Supermarket chain Wm Morrison was left on the shelf on Tuesday after scribblers at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS - news) sounded the alarm over its expansion plans.
In the race for supermarket floorspace, Morrisons is adding 800,000 sq ft to its portfolio, as it extends southwards from its northern heartland.
But Goldman was worried by the expense of this expansion and the detrimental effect it could have on returns, pointing out that Morrisons was accelerating its space opening programme at a higher cost than its peers.
"We believe that while Morrisons is under-represented in some parts of the UK, the capital cost of accessing growth in these areas is high, translating into the highest capital expenditure per square foot of the three listed UK food retailers," said analysts.
"We expect 2012 to be the third successive year of declining incremental returns for Morrisons, and more importantly, for these returns to be weaker still in 2013 and 2014," they added.
Further concerning analysts were signs that sales growth was slowing despite this expansion, saying the company's "Christmas trading suggested weakening productivity from new space". Fretting about the prospects for Morrisons' margins, Goldman added the supermarket to its "conviction sell" list, helping to send Morrisons down 2.3 to 295p.
Morrisons' decline came as the benchmark index was distinctly underwhelmed by eurozone finance ministers finally thrashing out a bailout deal for Greece.
With market watchers unconvinced by the package, perceived as a short-term fix, the FTSE 100 (Euronext: VFTSE.NX - news) retreated 17.05 points to 5,928.2. The FTSE 250 lost 40.67 points to 11,379.54.
Among the sharpest fallers was Tullow Oil (Stuttgart: 591219 - news) . Although the Africa-focused explorer said it had found oil at its Sierra Leone well, the discovery will need more development before it is considered commercial, sending Tullow down 58p to £15.43.
Oriel described the results as "encouraging", but added that "more work is required to better understand the commercial potential of these discoveries".
Oil minnow Max Petroleum (Other OTC: MXPTF.PK - news) dipped 0.75 to 13.5p as Kazakhstan's Zhaikmunai quashed rumours it could be interested in the Aim-listed stock.
Joining Tullow was steel producer Evraz , down 19.7 to 412.7p, but at the other end of the scale Vedanta Resources (EUREX: VR9F.EX - news) accelerated 95p to £14.53 amid suggestions that a potential tie-up between two separately-listed subsidiaries could help streamline the miner's complex structure.
Mid-cap Kenmare Resources (Irish: JEV.IR - news) , which has been the focus of takeover rumours of late, climbed 5.1 to 61.5p, while Petropavlovsk (Other OTC: PPLKF.PK - news) advanced 42 to 738.5p as Nomura upped its rating on the gold miner to "neutral" from "reduce".
Gaining ground on the top tier was ITV (Other OTC: ITVPF.PK - news) , which ticked up 1.5 to 79.55p amid reheated gossip that Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) could make a tilt at The X Factor broadcaster.
Tussling with Vedanta for the top spot was Admiral Group (LSE: ADM.L - news) , which sailed up 32p to £10.43. Shares in the motor insurer took a nosedive in November (Stuttgart: A0Z24E - news) as it warned that profits could come in at the low end of forecasts because of a jump in injury claims. With Admiral's annual results a fortnight away, analysts were turning their attention to what the figures might bring.
Credit Suisse (NYSEArca: CSMA - news) looked on the bright side, saying that it expected the results to "represent the first step for Admiral towards regaining market confidence that bodily injury challenges are being resolved". Turning bullish on Admiral, analysts said they expected the injury challenges to be "temporary", citing increasing political will to bring down these types of claims.
But on the second line, HomeServe (Dusseldorf: XHSA.DU - news) , which supplies home repair and insurance services, came under pressure amid renewed anxiety about its mis-selling troubles, which flared up last autumn. Concerns were reignited by CPP suspending trading on Monday as the Financial Services Authority reviews some of the credit card insurer's sales. Analysts at Espirito Santo said "HomeServe's difficulties remain different to CPP", but CPP's issues "do offer insight into the severity with which the regulator can act".
HomeServe fell 8.4 to 226p and Devro (LSE: DVO.L - news) shrank 8.6 to 285.4p as investors took profits following the sausage skin maker's annual results. Among the Aim stocks, a profit warning sent laser technology business Gooch & Housego plummeting 79.75 to 383.75p. Gooch said that trading conditions has been "more challenging than expected in its industrial laser market sector" and that annual profits were likely to undershoot its expectations.
Demand from health companies and makers of personal care products helped profits at chemical producer, Croda, jump 26pc to £242.4m last year, sending its shares up 92p to £21.23 on Tuesday.
Croda, whose customers include Estee Lauder (NYSE: EL - news) and L'Oreal, described its results as "outstanding" and said it expected 2012 to be "another year of progress". It added that "trading in January was encouraging and this positive trend has continued, despite the obvious economic uncertainties in Europe (Chicago Options: ^REURUSD - news) ".
Croda has been tipped as a potential takeover candidate for a bigger peer such as Dow Chemicals.
But on Tuesday, Croda was downplaying that possibility, saying that it did not want to be taken over and would rather be a buyer in the sector, which has witnessed some consolidation over recent years.
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