FTSE 100: Wolseley knocked back as large-caps erase early gains Wolseley posted a sharp drop in third-quarter sales in Europe, sending its shares down 4.2pc despite a strong performance in its North American business. Wolseley's like-for-like sales in Nordic countries dropped by 1.7pc, and by 6.1pc in France, a drop that analysts said was responsible for the sell-off in the shares. John Martin, Wolseley's chief financial officer, attributed the disappointing European performance partly to bad weather on the continent this spring, which affects construction activity. With traders hearts lifted by talk that China was set to take fresh measures to fuel its economy, the FTSE 100 had pressed ahead in early morning trading, but it later dropped back, easing 2 points to 5354. Speculation about fresh stimulus measures came as China's official Shanghai Securities News reported the country's biggest banks appeared to have accelerated lending toward the end of this month as Beijing started to fast track its approval of infrastructure investments. That helped the miners, with Kazakhmys ticking up 2pc and Randgold Resources up 1.4pc. But, persistent eurozone jitters kept a lid on the blue-chip index. The Bank of Spain said on Tuesday morning that the country's economy will continue shrinking in the second quarter. Amongst the second-liners, Greggs heated up 6pc after Chancellor George Osborne agreed to water down plans to tax pasties following a backlash. Analysts at Liberum upgraded their rating on Greggs from "sell" to "hold." "Uncertainty regarding the impact of the Government's proposal to charge VAT on all food sold 'above ambient room temperature' has also weighed on the shares," said the broker. The shares will react positively to news that the government has been forced into a U-Turn. However, the company continue to face cyclical and structural pressures and we remain cautious.