FTSE 100 Biggest Losers Today: Sage, Kingfisher, Cohort and Everyman Lead UK Stock Market Declines (10 December 2025)

The UK stock market is trading cautiously on Wednesday, 10 December 2025, as investors sit on their hands ahead of a critical US Federal Reserve rate decision. The headline indices are little moved, but under the surface there are some chunky single‑stock losses across the FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and AIM.

By 08:35 GMT, the FTSE 100 was only about 0.1% higher at 9,647.75, while the FTSE 250 slipped around 0.2%. Yet several blue‑chip names – notably The Sage Group, Kingfisher and Ashtead Group – were among the sharpest fallers in early trade. Mid‑caps and smaller companies have seen steeper moves, with Cohort and Everyman Media tumbling after fresh updates. ^[1]

Below is a breakdown of the biggest UK stock losers today, the news driving them, and what analysts and investors are watching next.

Market backdrop: Fed nerves, weak retail data and December cross‑currents

Two big macro stories are setting the tone:

The Fed is expected to cut rates tonight
In London’s “open” report, Tickmill’s Patrick Munnelly noted that the FOMC is widely expected to cut the Fed Funds rate by 25bps to 3.50–3.75%, but stressed that markets will focus more on the updated economic projections and “dot plot” for 2026 and beyond. A separate report from Reuters highlights that traders are pricing roughly an 87% chance of a December cut, with gold and silver rallying strongly ahead of the announcement – silver briefly hit an all‑time high above $60/oz. That combination – a likely cut but uncertainty over the path of future easing – is encouraging investors to trim positions in more rate‑sensitive and highly‑valued names.
UK retail data remain soft
An Alliance News-based market wrap published by TheIndustry.fashion shows that Tuesday’s FTSE session was dragged down by retailers after BRC–KPMG data revealed annual UK total retail sales growth of just 1.4% in November, down from 1.6% in October. BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson warned that “pre‑budget jitters” meant Black Friday “did not deliver as strongly as retailers had hoped or the economy needed”, while Pantheon Macroeconomics flagged downside risks to Q4 GDP from the weak print.

Together, this backdrop helps explain why cyclical retailers, bond‑proxy defensives and richly‑valued growth stocks feature heavily on today’s losers list.

FTSE 100 biggest losers today (early trade)

From London South East’s “London open: FTSE nudges up ahead of Fed announcement” report, these were the largest FTSE 100 fallers around 08:35 GMT: ^[2]

The Sage Group (SGE) – down ~2.1% to 1,060p
Kingfisher (KGF) – down ~1.6% to 300.9p
Ashtead Group (AHT) – down ~1.5% to 4,725p
CRH – down ~1.5%
Smurfit WestRock – down ~1.3%
Mondi (MNDI) – down ~1.1%
3i Group (III) – down ~1.1%
Halma (HLMA) – down ~1.0%
Coca‑Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) – down ~1.0%
Phoenix Group (PHNX) – down ~1.0%

Why Sage is under pressure

Sage is one of the more eye‑catching names on the fallers board. Today’s slide builds on a modest pull‑back since the group reported full‑year results in November.

Analysis from Simply Wall St notes that after those results, 16 analysts now expect Sage to grow revenue by around 9–10% in 2026 and statutory EPS by about 17%, and they have reaffirmed a consensus price target of roughly £13.10 per share – comfortably above this morning’s trading level around 1,070p.

In other words, forecasts and ratings have barely budged, but the stock has had a strong run in 2025 and is seeing classic pre‑Fed profit‑taking in a long‑duration growth name.

Retail and building‑materials names extend Tuesday’s weakness

Several other FTSE 100 losers today – notably Kingfisher, CRH, Smurfit Westrock and Mondi – sit squarely in the consumer, construction and packaging complex.

Kingfisher, which owns B&Q and Screwfix, is naturally exposed to UK DIY and housing demand. Its early‑morning drop of around 1.6% comes right after the BRC–KPMG data that pointed to fragile discretionary spending.
CRH, Smurfit Westrock and Mondi are global building‑materials and packaging players. They tend to track expectations for industrial production, e‑commerce volumes and interest‑rate paths, so a cautious tone ahead of the Fed and worries over global growth are likely feeding into today’s declines.

Bond proxies and quality‑growth lag

Names like Halma, Phoenix Group and Coca‑Cola Europacific Partners – which investors often treat as defensive income or “bond proxy” stocks – are also modestly lower. When the market is unsure whether the Fed will signal more cuts or push back against easing expectations, those bond‑like equities can trade soft as yields move around.

FTSE 250 fallers: Kainos and Hilton Food lead mid‑cap declines

The same “London open” report highlights a cluster of mid‑cap losers that were underperforming the broader market:

Kainos – down 3.4%
Hilton Food Group – down 2.7%
C&C Group – down 2.2%
Moonpig – down 1.9%
Pantheon Infrastructure – down 1.9%
Renishaw, Oxford Nanopore, THG, Oxford Biomedica and B&M European Value Retail all trading 1.5–1.8% lower.

In aggregate, this reads as risk reduction in higher‑beta names:

Kainos relies heavily on public‑sector and enterprise IT budgets, which could be vulnerable if fiscal policy tightens.
Hilton Food, C&C and B&M add to the sense of consumer‑sensitive stocks coming under pressure after yesterday’s weak retail‑sales read‑across.

There’s no single headline driving all of these moves; instead, they fit a classic “de‑risk before the Fed” pattern with a UK domestic twist.

AIM and small‑cap pain: Cohort and Everyman Media tumble

Two smaller UK names stand out as among the sharpest losers anywhere in the market today.

Cohort: solid order book, but margins disappoint

Defence and security technology group Cohort saw its share price drop about 8% in early trading, to around 1,010p, after publishing half‑year results.

Key points from the update:

Revenue rose 9% to £128.8m in the six months to 31 October.
Adjusted operating profit slipped to £9.7m from £10.1m as the net margin fell from 8.6% to 7.5%, largely due to a weaker margin mix in its Sensors and Effectors division.
Order intake fell 12% to £122.3m, though the order book remains very strong at £604.5m, only slightly below last year’s record and including £145m of revenue already scheduled for H2.
Management said that 94–96% of consensus full‑year revenue is already covered by booked work and described the outlook for organic growth in core defence markets as “positive”, increasing the interim dividend by 10%.

So, Cohort’s sell‑off looks less like an existential earnings shock and more like the market repricing margins and growth quality after a long run‑up in defence names.

Everyman Media: guidance cut triggers an 18% slide

Cinema chain Everyman Media is another big loser. A report from UK Investor Magazine says the shares “sank” around 18% at the open after the company cut full‑year guidance.

The new outlook:

Revenue for the year to 1 January 2026 is now expected to be no less than £114.5m, still above last year’s £107.2m but well below September’s guidance of £121.6m.
EBITDA is forecast at a minimum of £16.8m, only slightly ahead of last year’s £16.2m and far short of the previously signalled £20m.
Management blamed a “disappointing” UK Q4 box‑office performance and a tougher consumer backdrop, while also flagging that net debt is now expected to rise to about £24m versus £18.1m a year earlier.

Despite the guidance cut, Everyman emphasised that it is still on track to grow revenue, EBITDA, ticket prices and F&B spend per head, and to keep gaining market share in premium cinema.

Investors, however, had clearly been pricing in continued outperformance and a booming content slate, so even a modest downgrade at the EBITDA line has triggered a sharp de‑rating.

Retail still in the doghouse after Tuesday’s losers

Although today’s early fallers skew more towards software, construction and packaging, retail and consumer staples are still very much in focus after Tuesday’s close:

The five biggest FTSE 100 fallers on Tuesday were Magnum Ice Cream Co, Diageo, Tesco, GSK and Next, according to Alliance News coverage. ^[3]
The same report highlighted Next, Marks & Spencer and JD Sports as notable decliners after the BRC’s weak November sales data.

These names aren’t necessarily at the top of today’s fallers list yet, but traders are watching closely to see whether yesterday’s retail and consumer‑staples sell‑off extends into the Fed decision or whether bargain‑hunters step in.

How analysts are reading today’s losers

Even with some chunky single‑day drops, analyst commentary so far suggests no wholesale change in the long‑term stories behind most of today’s laggards.

Sage: valuation wobble, not a thesis break

Post‑results analysis of Sage shows:

Revenue growth of roughly 9–10% per year and mid‑teens EPS growth are still expected into 2026.
The consensus price target around £13.10 implies decent upside from this morning’s ~1,070p level, even after a roughly 1–2% daily slide.

Today’s move looks like position‑squaring in a quality software name that has outperformed in 2025, rather than a fundamental downgrade.

Cohort: margins vs. backlog

For Cohort, analysts will likely focus on:

The trade‑off between slightly weaker near‑term margins and a very strong backlog that covers most of the year’s revenue expectations.
Management’s confidence in organic growth in defence and security markets and its willingness to increase the dividend.

That mix – lower margin, but high visibility and a growing order book – often leads to volatile short‑term share price reactions, but can create opportunities for longer‑term investors who are comfortable with defence exposure.

Everyman Media: expectations reset

Everyman’s ~18% drop shows how unforgiving the market can be when:

Guidance is cut from a high base (revenue from £121.6m down to at least £114.5m, EBITDA from £20m to at least £16.8m).
Debt rises at the same time as earnings expectations fall, raising questions about balance‑sheet flexibility.

Yet the company still expects record revenue and EBITDA versus last year, and continues to grow its customer metrics. That suggests the long‑term thesis – premium cinema winning share from mainstream chains – may be intact, even if near‑term returns look bumpier than bulls had hoped.

What to watch for the rest of the week

For traders and investors trying to make sense of today’s biggest UK stock losers, a few catalysts stand out:

Tonight’s Fed decision and press conference
Markets are almost certain they’ll get a 25bp cut, but the tone of Chair Powell’s comments and the dots for 2026–27 will drive how far yields fall – or rise – from here. That, in turn, will influence bond‑proxy defensives (Phoenix, Halma, CCEP) and growth names (Sage, Kainos, Oxford Nanopore).
Bank of England next week
City AM’s liveblog points out that the Fed decision lands just a week before the Bank of England makes its own call on rates, with Governor Andrew Bailey expected to be pivotal. Any hint that the BoE may stay more hawkish than the Fed would matter for UK‑domestic cyclicals and housebuilders in particular.
Follow‑through in retail and consumer names
After the BRC‑KPMG sales disappointment and Tuesday’s drops in retailers and consumer staples, markets will be watching Tesco, Next, Diageo, GSK, Magnum Ice Cream Co and B&M to see whether valuation support emerges or whether worries about Q4 consumer spending intensify.
Company‑specific updates
- For Cohort, any additional commentary from management or brokers on margin trajectory and order conversion could stabilise (or pressure) the stock.
- For Everyman, investors may look for more detail on the 2026 film slate, debt reduction plans and how quickly management expects box‑office trends to normalise.

Bottom line

Index‑level moves are small, but stock‑specific pain is real today across the UK market.
The biggest losers span software (Sage), retailers and cyclicals (Kingfisher, B&M, Moonpig), industrials (Ashtead, CRH, Mondi) and smaller names hit by guidance or margin issues (Cohort, Everyman).
Most of these declines are happening against a backdrop of Fed uncertainty and weak UK retail data, rather than wholesale downgrades to UK corporate earnings.

For investors, that means volatility and opportunity are likely to remain stock‑specific: today’s losers could either become value opportunities if fundamentals prove resilient – or warning signs if guidance cuts spread as economic data catch up with market optimism.