LONDON -- The FTSE 100 (INDEX: ^FTSE) has opened the week in a sideways mood, fluttering just a point or two each way to stand on 5,666 points. It's looking like it will take some major market news to get it to move significantly either way.
Individual companies are seeing significant moves, though. Here are three FTSE index constituents that fell sharply today.
Borders & Southern (LSE: BOR.L)
Borders & Southern shares collapsed 70% to 19 pence after the Falklands Basin oil explorer revealed bad news of its Stebbing prospect well.
After reaching a depth of 3,000 meters, drilling was unable to go farther after unfavorable pressure conditions were encountered, and deeper targets will not now be explored. Focus will instead turn to the firm's other exploratory well, with samples from the Darwin prospect currently undergoing analysis.
Motive Television (LSE: MTV.L)
Shares in Motive Television plummeted 17.6% to just 0.07 pence this morning. This comes as a result of a dispute over the acquisition of the rest of its Spanish subsidiary.
Motive's offer brings the deal price for the remaining third of the company to 70,000 euros, but the current owner of the stake, CCAN, claims that a past "put" agreement between the two firms obliges Motive to pay 2.1 million euros for the acquisition. Motive, for its part, has issued a counterclaim that the old agreement is no longer valid.
Sound Oil (LSE: SOU.L)
Sound Oil shares slid 12% to 0.9 pence after the company announced a new funding deal that will raise capital through a private placing -- and apparently there is also an open offer to current shareholders in the pipeline.
The new deal is complex, with tranches of redeemable subscription notes coming over seven separate trading periods, and the full amount of cash raised will depend on where the share prices goes -- but it should be around 6 million pounds at the current price. It's that uncertainty, presumably, that led to today's sell-off.
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