Why EMED Mining, Michael Page International, and M.P. Evans Are Lagging the FTSE 100 Today

LONDON -- The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE  ) entered its third losing session in a row today, down 0.5% to 6,312 points as of 10:55 a.m. EDT. Share prices for miners bounced back a little after recent falls, but the big U.K. banks are having a hard time of it today. At the moment, it's hard to see the index regaining its five-year high of 6,534, set on March 12, anytime soon.

But there are individual shares doing worse. Here are three that are falling behind their various indexes today.

EMED Mining (LSE: EMED  )
EMED Mining shares have slipped 2% to 10.2 pence despite the firm's announcement that the public comment period for its Rio Tinto Copper tailings project has been closed by the Andalusian government. Apparently, the consultation raised only one negative comment, which the company says "raised nothing of a material nature that had not already been taken into account." EMED now sounds pretty upbeat about its project to extract copper, silver, and gold from waste materials.

Michael Page
A first-quarter update from Michael Page International sent the firm's shares down 4.9% to 378 pence this morning after the recruitment specialist revealed a 6.7% year-on-year fall in gross profit. Though some regions performed well, chief executive Steve Ingham told us, "our businesses in France and Germany, where we operate predominantly in permanent recruitment, experienced another challenging quarter, down 17% and 27% respectively."

Going forward, the firm is targeting growth in China, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and North America.

M.P. Evans (LSE: MPE  )
Final results from M.P. Evans Group resulted in a share price tumble of 2.4% to 498 pence. The firm, a major producer of Indonesian palm oil with an interest in Australian beef, saw profit almost halved to $21.55 million from $39.7 million a year previously.

Although earnings per share plummeted by a similar proportion to approximately 21 pence, the full-year dividend was maintained at 8 pence per share (with 2.25 pence having already been paid at the interim stage).

Reliable dividends can more than compensate for the day-to-day ups and downs of share prices. So how about a company that's offering a 5.7% yield and could be set for some nice share-price appreciation, too? It's the subject of our brand-new report "The Motley Fool's Top Income Share For 2013," which you can get completely free of charge -- but it will only be available for a limited period, so click here to get your copy today.