Consumer concerns drag on blue-chips Concerns over consumer spending dragged on the blue-chips in early trading as falls in Whitbread and Burberry shares weighed on the benchmark index. The FTSE 100 lost 37 points and was pulled down by Burberry, which dropped 3.8pc after fellow luxury goods retailer Mulberry issued a profits warning. The group said wholesale shipments fell 4pc while international retail sales did not meet expectations. That had a knock-on effect on Burberry, which put out a profit warning of its own last month. Meanwhile, Whitbread also shed 1.4pc after the Costa Coffee-owner sounded a note of caution about the outlook for consumers. "Our consumer market context continues to be broadly flat," the company said. Against this background we expect to continue to outperform our competitors and like for like sales growth to be more moderate than the high levels achieved in the first half. At the other end of the FTSE 100, chip designer ARM Holdings was the top performer, rising 5pc on the back of a 22pc increase in pre-tax profits in the third-quarter. On the FTSE 250, which slipped 36 points, chip maker CSR jumped 3.8pc after the group revealed plans to return cash to shareholders. Elsewhere on the mid-cap index, the unexpected announcement that Chemring chief executive David Price had resigned made investors nervous about a collapse of Carlyle's potential takeover of the FTSE 250 company and the shares tumbled 7.6pc. The private equity group has until November 9 to make a firm offer or walk away, while the new CEO Mark Papworth takes over just a few days before, on November 5.