High Street stocks fall as FTSE cools There were further signs of strain on the UK high street on Thursday as both of London's main equities indices moved away from some of their best levels of 2012. HMV, the small-cap music retailer with a major presence in town centres across the UK, warned that it could break its banking covenants in January after it reported a further 10 per cent fall in interim like-for-like sales. Its shares fell 41.6 per cent to 2.49p. It also reported a loss of £24.1m in the period. Wider retailers were unsettled, and crowded on to the list of the biggest fallers on the FTSE 250. Sports Direct was 3.2 per cent softer at 715p after news it will attempt to reintroduce a bonus scheme to award a one-off windfall worth more than £40m to founder Mike Ashley, after shareholders in the sporting retailer rejected a similar measure in September. Dunelm Group, the owner of the household goods chain Dunelm Mills, was 2 per cent weaker at 637p. Home Retail Group, the owner of Argos and Homebase, slipped 0.5 per cent to 128p after its recent strong run cooled. Overall, London's second tier index slipped 0.1 per cent to 12,212.96, a loss of 11 points. The modest loss took it away from its record close of 12,224.31 reached on Wednesday, which took its rally for 2012 to 22 per cent. The most eye-catching move of the morning came as Egyptian goldminer Centamin slumped 63 per cent to 20p after its problems with the government there grew. The combined impact of gold shipments being held by customs officials and a dispute with a fuel supplier meant it placed its Sukari mine in mothballs. The FTSE 100 also drifted away from some of its best levels of the year. London's main index slipped 0.1 per cent to 5,945.30 after rising 0.4 per cent over the previous session, taking it within touching distance of its best reading of 2012 at 5,965 reached in March. BG Group was the index's biggest single faller in early trade after it scotched hopes that its next chief executive would come from outside the group. It appointed an insider, Chris Finlayson, to the job. The stock fell 1.1 per cent to £10.53. Financial stocks were higher after the news that eurozone finance ministers reached an agreement to bring a single banking supervisor to the currency zone. Barclays made the best showing in the sector, up 1 per cent at 253.55p.