Shares in the company – Britain's biggest listed housebuilder – fell 4 per cent, or 18.02p, to 434.8p while fellow blue-chips Taylor Wimpey (down 2.8 per cent, or 3.4p, to 116.5p) and Persimmon (off 2.1 per cent, or 27p to 1232p) were also on the slide.
And while the Bank of England finally got on with another rate cut this week – from 4.75 per cent to 4.5 per cent – progress is painfully slow and the prospect of a new era of stagflation is hardly boosting confidence.
HIIT shares surged 8.3 per cent, or 14p, to 182p but JGGI inched down 1 per cent, or 6p, to 603p.
As such, the FTSE 100 lost 0.3 per cent, or 26.75 points, to 8700.53 and the FTSE 250 slid 0.8 per cent, or 165.29 points, to 20807.84.
In the second tier, Vistry fell 3.8 per cent, or 23p, to 579.5p on another disappointing day as it struggles to recover from last year's profit warnings.
