LONDON (ShareCast) - Shares in BT Group were pulling back on Monday after a strong surge the previous session, pressuring the fixed line telecoms sector to the bottom of the pile.

Annual results from BT were met with a 12% share-price rise on Friday after the company beat analysts’ estimates with a 21% jump in adjusted pre-tax profit in the fourth quarter.

The day before, the company revealed that it would offer free sport to all BT broadband customers, “the first time in more than 20 years that weekly live matches from the Barclays Premier League will be free to watch”, the firm said.

Although BT’s results were ahead of Citigroup’s forecasts, it reduced its current-year (ending March 2014) and 2015 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) forecasts.

The broker said: “The free offer for all direct BT Sport customers has a greater negative impact on our estimates for Retail’s EBITDA than the higher-than-expected ‘indirect’ price for customers watching via satellite or online.”

BT was down 1.20% at 305.8p before the close of trade on Monday.

Sector peers TalkTalk, Telecom Plus and Virgin Media were also in the red.


Top performing sectors so far today
Aerospace and Defence 4,970.84 +1.18%
Support Services 6,044.59 +1.09%
Beverages 15,504.03 +0.81%
Real Estate Investment & Services 2,443.13 +0.79%
Gas, Water & Multiutilities 6,061.01 +0.74%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Fixed Line Telecommunications 3,514.97 -1.38%
Automobiles & Parts 6,714.93 -1.24%
Banks 5,036.50 -1.23%
Industrial Metals & Mining 1,889.21 -0.86%
Industrial Transportation 2,711.53 -0.72%

BC

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