BT (BT) has weighed on the FTSE 100 as the telecommunications group announced 4,000 job cuts and reined in expectations for dividend growth.
Shares in the business slumped 3.4% to 301.5p, weighing on a flat FTSE 100, trading at 7,383 points, with the group also announcing its boss Gavin Patterson would not receive his bonus after a 'challenging year' that saw it hit by an Italian accounting scandal.
BT will pay a final dividend of 10.55p, up 10% from last year's payment, but said dividend growth for next year would be below the 10% it had previously targeted.
The group will cut 4,000 jobs from its global services unit that serves multinationals, as it reported a 19% fall in profits for the year.
Patterson and outgoing finance director Tony Chanmugam will not receive a bonus, with Patterson's £1.3 million pay for the year a 74% cut on the £5.3 million he received for 2016.
Shares in BT plummeted in January after the company issued a profit warning and revealed accounting problems at its Italian division were worse than feared.
'The past year has been challenging,' said remuneration committee chairman Tony Ball.
'Although good progress has been made in a number of areas, unfortunately our performance has been significantly affected by the accounting irregularities in our Italian business, the issues that arose in Openreach around deemed consent and the significant challenges we faced in the UK public sector and international corporate markets.
'The committee has made a number of difficult decisions this year in the light of these circumstances and exercised its discretion accordingly.'
Hargreaves Lansdown equity analyst George Salmon questioned the new 'progressive' dividend policy.
'BT has got several millstones hanging round its neck at the moment, not least the huge debts taken on to acquire EE and its sizeable pension deficit, which is due for a funding round in June,' he said.
'In addition, compensation relating to malpractice at Openreach is set to drain another £300 million from the coffers next year, so one has to wonder how "progressive" the new dividend policy can be.'
The FTSE 100's biggest faller was Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK), down 8.1% at £17.97 as the group failed to win US Food and Drug Administration approval for its lung drug, a cut-price rival to GlaxoSmithKline's Advair.
Centrica (CNA) was another heavy faller, down 12.5p, or 6.2%, at 190.8p. While 8.4p of that fall is due to the stock trading without entitlement to its latest dividend, the British Gas owner was also hit by a downgrade from analysts at JPMorgan and Barclays following its trading statement on Monday and the row over Conservative plans to cap household energy bills.
Miners meanwhile topped the FTSE 100 leaderboard. Risers included:
