London close: Losses grow after US data
Wall Street wobbled following a bigger-than-expected fall in existing home sales, sending London's blue chips further back, with weak miners and ex-dividend stocks also hitting the index.
Despite serving up a record first half profit mining giant BHP Billiton fell as investors were left uninspired by the figures and had already factored in the $3bn share buyback.
BHP reported net profit of $10.45bn for the six months to June from $6.39bn. Profit from operations rose 58.2% to $14.4bn, while sales rose to $39.1bn from $31.5bn.
Other miners including Anglo American, Vedanta and Antofagasta also slipped on mixed metal prices.
Support services group Brambles Industries topped the blue chip risers after it delivered a profit of $589m from $475m last year with better than expected sales up 8% to $3.5bn.
Software firm Sage also put on a good show as investors cheered a smaller-than-expected fourth quarter loss at US peer Intuit.
Scottish & Southern Energy, Dixons-owner DSG International, chemicals giant ICI, fund manager Schroders and media group Pearson all posted losses as they began trading without the right to the latest dividend.
Meanwhile, cigarette maker Imperial Tobacco lost its spark after announcing that it has acquired the worldwide Davidoff cigarette trademark for £368m cash.
Fellow tobacco group British American Tobacco also fell despite UBS repeating its "buy" advice and citing the potential for further upgrades as it upped its target to 1,685p from 1,625p.
Property developer Slough Estates announced a 184% rise in profits for the first half of the year to £338.1m and said it was on track for REIT conversion in January 2007.
Terrestrial broadcaster ITV said it will sell its 45% interest in the Irish TV3 Television Network to Doughty Hanson for around £70m.
Blacks Leisure slumped after the outdoor clothing retailer warned like-for-like sales for the 25 weeks to 19 August fell by 0.4%. As a result the board now expects half-year result to be broadly at break-even level.
Electronic billing services group PayPoint rallied strongly though after Swiss broker UBS lifted the shares to 'buy' from 'neutral' with 675p target price.
Paper and packaging group DS Smith announced today the sale of its site in Taplow, Berkshire and the subsequent closure of its Taplow Mill.
Shares in printing specialist group TripleArc soared after it said trading was in line with expectations.
Specialist healthcare group Ark Therapeutics extended recent gains as it announced positive results from a phase II trial of its gene therapy product Trinam.
Tailored in-store radio provider Immedia Broadcasting was unmoved despite saying it was confident of meeting full year expectations and noting that some contracts are taking less time to sign.
Surf clothes group Hot Tuna reported a £2m loss at its maiden final numbers as employee costs of £1.03m and marketing costs of £0.38 hit home.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Brambles Industries (BI.) 447.25p +4.74%
Sage Group (SGE) 233.50p +1.85%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 711.00p +0.99%
Drax (DRX) 910.00p +0.89%
Xstrata (XTA) 2,265.00p +0.67%
Cadbury Schweppes (CBRY) 554.50p +0.64%
Alliance Boots (AB.) 771.50p +0.59%
Capita Group (CPI) 533.75p +0.52%
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 995.00p +0.51%
Sainsbury (SBRY) 356.00p +0.49%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
BHP Billiton plc (BLT) 1,014.00p -3.98%
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Slough Estates (SLOU) 636.00p -3.71%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,380.00p -3.64%
Pearson (PSON) 737.50p -3.02%
DSG International (DSGI) 195.25p -2.98%
Amvescap (AVZ) 534.50p -2.73%
Schroders Nv (SDRC) 848.00p -2.53%
Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) 1,185.00p -2.39%
Schroders (SDR) 903.00p -2.38%
Old Mutual (OML) 157.00p -2.33%
FTSE 250 - Risers
PayPoint (PAY) 560.00p +12.00%
Premier Oil (PMO) 1,042.00p +5.73%
Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNN) 190.00p +5.56%
Dana Petroleum (DNX) 1,261.00p +3.11%
Matalan (MTN) 177.00p +2.76%
Rathbone Bros (RAT) 1,135.00p +2.07%
IG Group Holdings (IGG) 239.50p +1.91%
Gyrus Group (GYG) 380.00p +1.88%
Premier Foods (PFD) 251.00p +1.83%
Spectris (SXS) 621.50p +1.80%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Wellington Underwriting (WUN) 93.00p -5.34%
Shaftesbury (SHB) 564.50p -3.67%
Bodycote (BOY) 228.75p -3.48%
Aquarius Platinum (AQP) 903.50p -3.37%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 354.00p -3.01%
Greggs (GRG) 4,020.00p -2.99%
Ultra Electronics (ULE) 1,001.50p -2.91%
Interserve (IRV) 277.25p -2.89%
SThree (STHR) 304.25p -2.80%
EMAP (EMA) 696.50p -2.38%
