Market Report: Cineworld sinks on fears it can't repeat blockbuster performance

Film-lovers have been spoiled for choice this year with the new James Bond film Spectre, the soon-to-be-released Star Wars reboot and the final chapter in the Hunger Games series starring Jennifer Lawrence.

It is a blockbuster line-up that won’t be matched next year, according to Canaccord Genuity, which spells bad news for Cineworld.

Canaccord’s analysts swapped their Buy rating on the cinema operator for a Sell tip and dropped their target price from 620p to 535p.

The “double-downgrade” dragged the stock down 13.5p or 2.3% to 580.5p, putting the brakes on the stock’s strong run in 2015.

It is still up 40% after a string of box-offices smashes.

Elsewhere, the Bank of Japan decided not to inject life into its flagging economy in the form of more quantitative easing, but hinted that it would not oppose doing so in future.

It was a similar sounding statement to the one made by the US Federal Reserve this week regarding interest rates and did not provide traders with much direction as the FTSE 100 drifted 6.02 points lower to 6389.78.

Airplane engine-maker Rolls-Royce flew 11.5p or 1.7% higher to 690.5p on the back of better-than-expected third-quarter results from rival Airbus.

The news also prevented further profit warning-fuelled falls from Meggitt, up 2.6p to 349.9p, with an upgrade from Sell to neutral from JPMorgan Cazenove also providing support.

Car dealer Lookers appeared to have emerged from the VW emissions wreckage unscathed as it unveiled strong third-quarter results, driving the shares up 5.9p to 174.35p.

Topping the FTSE 250 was drug-maker Vectura, 14.05p healthier at 177.95p as its lung disease treatments developed by Novartis were granted FDA approval, triggering a $22.5 million (£14.7 million) payment from the Swiss giant.

A share sale by executives at Shoe Zone, down 7.5p to 199p, wrong-footed investors after chief executive Anthony Smith cashed in £2.6 million worth of shares.