UK stocks opened lower on Monday, in a grim start to the last week of the quarter, while Ladbrokes owner Entain tumbled to over a year’s low after issuing a warning about its online gaming sales.
Entain slipped 4.5% after saying it expects third-quarter online net gaming revenue to be down by “high single digit percent” on a pro-forma basis due to softer-than-anticipated growth in Australia and Italy.
The travel and leisure index housing the gambling firm dropped 1.9%.
More broadly, the exporter focussed FTSE 100 and the mid-cap FTSE 250 dropped 0.4% each as worries of tighter monetary conditions for longer continued to weigh on sentiment.
Among other movers, Aviva fell 0.7% after the life insurance firm said it agreed to acquire the UK protection business of AIG for 460 million pounds ($562.81 million).
The life insurance sector housing the firm was off 1.2%.