London close: Poor finish for leading shares
London never really looked like making it out of the red today as investors took profits following last week's rally, with a mix of weak insurers, gloomy miners, rate fears and ex-dividend issues ensuring a negative result.
Prudential ended the day among the leading losers following Friday's poorly received figures, with Legal & General down in sympathy.
BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Rio Tinto also closed lower, while Vodafone and Alliance Boots went ex-dividend today.
The chemist group, which began trading today following the merger of Alliance Unichem and Boots, announced that it was on track for targeted cost savings and is confident of delivering £60m of annual savings by the end of the second year.
Publishing giant Pearson pushed ahead though after it said it was confident of achieving another excellent result this year, as it predicted strong earnings growth and reported underlying sales growth of 8%.
Severn Trent also enjoyed gains on the back of speculation that private equity groups, including KKR and Apollo Management, are mulling a potential £5bn bid for the water utility.
Meanwhile, banking goliath HSBC reported an 18% hike in half year profits to £6.7bn thanks mainly to a strong showing from its investment bank and emerging markets businesses.
Leisure giant Whitbread has agreed to sell its 50% stake in Pizza Hut to its joint venture partner, Yum! Restaurants. The news was widely reported in the press over the weekend.
A positive note from Goldman Sachs gave Tate & Lyle a lift, as the broker upped its estimates on the sugar producer. Hopes of a cut in Mexican tax on fructose also helped.
Meanwhile, drug group Shire jumped as Swiss broker UBS said 'buy' and JP Morgan 'overweight', although Panmure cut Rolls Royce to "sell" citing valuation grounds.
In economic news, British mortgage approvals reached a five month high in June, according to the Bank of England today, up at 120,000 for the month. The BoE meets this week to decide on its next rate move.
In addition, property website Hometrack said overall house prices rose for the fourth consecutive month, up 0.6% in July, hiking the average price for a home in England and Wales to £166,500.
Elsewhere, Northern Foods has reached an agreement to sell its chilled distribution business NFT to the private equity firm Phoenix Equity Partners for £51.2m.
Ultra Electronics has also agreed to acquire the assets of Winfrith Safety Systems from Canberra Harwell for a total sum of £3.1m. It also reported a 15% rise in pre-tax profit to £23.8m for the six months to June, on revenues up 14% to £180.7m.
Better than expected results from Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASM International helped UK techs, with Wolfson Microelectronics and bluetooth chip firm CSR higher.
Computer and software group Northgate Information Solutions has announced the appointment of Ron Mackintosh as chairman designate, following the news earlier in the month that current incumbent Nick Irens will step down.
Mobile phone transmitter specialist Filtronic fell into a full year loss as it completes financial restructuring started in 2004. Pre-tax losses came in at £6.7m for the year to May from a profit of £9.5m in 2005. The group maintained a final dividend of 1.80p.
Film studio group Pinewood Shepperton announced that it has been hit by a serious fire on the 007 stage at its Pinewood Studios location, though it does not expect any material impact this year.
Tobacco packaging firm Molins has sold its Italian specialist machinery subsidiary Sasib for a nominal consideration, avoiding the huge costs associated with a possible closure of the business.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Shire (SHP) 863.50p +2.80%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 685.00p +2.70%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,298.00p +1.96%
Pearson (PSON) 727.00p +1.04%
Sage Group (SGE) 232.50p +0.98%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 866.50p +0.93%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 163.75p +0.77%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,280.00p +0.71%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 1,443.00p +0.70%
Drax (DRX) 894.00p +0.56%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
ITV (ITV) 97.25p -2.75%
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Northern Rock (NRK) 1,115.00p -2.66%
Prudential (PRU) 562.50p -2.60%
Alliance Boots (AB.) 786.00p -2.54%
Vodafone (VOD) 116.25p -2.43%
Liberty International (LII) 1,143.00p -2.39%
Slough Estates (SLOU) 664.00p -2.35%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,251.00p -2.19%
PartyGaming (PRTY) 109.50p -2.01%
Legal & General (LGEN) 124.25p -1.97%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Wolfson Microelectronics (WLF) 452.00p +4.93%
Invensys (ISYS) 18.50p +4.23%
Autonomy (AU.) 427.50p +3.01%
Hunting (HTG) 390.00p +2.50%
Charter (CHTR) 781.00p +2.36%
RPS Group (RPS) 223.00p +2.29%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,525.00p +2.28%
Interserve (IRV) 385.00p +2.26%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 139.00p +2.21%
GKN (GKN) 259.50p +2.17%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Greggs (GRG) 3,585.00p -4.40%
Photo-Me International (PHTM) 103.50p -4.17%
Northgate Information Solutions (NIS) 70.00p -3.45%
St Modwen Property (SMP) 485.25p -3.29%
Findel (FDL) 541.00p -3.13%
F&C Asset Management (FCAM) 188.50p -3.08%
Expro International (EXR) 633.00p -2.69%
Workspace Group (WKP) 376.75p -2.65%
Benfield Group (BFD) 360.50p -2.63%
BBA Group (BBA) 252.25p -2.61%
