London close: Top stocks finish flat
Having staged a mini recovery in the afternoon, London's tops stocks veered back down to end the day flat as Wall Street reversed its earlier gains.
US stocks had received a boost in early deals but the gains were soon retraced with a rise in oil prices also weighing on sentiment
Back in London, British Airways fell sharply after second-quarter operating profit fell 8% to £240m as it booked a £100m charge following the disruption to flights from additional security at airports. The group also cut its full year revenue growth.
Consumer packaging group Rexam was a heavy faller after it warned it would take a restructuring charge of around £10m in 2006. Delays in product launches also hit sentiment.
Heavy investment in its new broadband service sent profits at satellite broadcaster BSkyB down by 17% in the first three months of the year. But the subscriber performance came in better than expected with 82,000 net TV subscribers added.
Tobacco stocks were in demand on the back of renewed rumours that Japan Tobacco is mulling a potential bid for Gallaher. Imperial Tobacco and BAT also gained support.
British Energy rose on a combination of hopes for better news on its outages and a submission to the government over the development of nuclear energy in the UK.
An easing in gold prices left the struggling with Lonmin leading the fallers. Rio Tinto and Anglo American were also in the red.
AstraZeneca slipped after a report said major shareholders are demanding that executives at the pharmaceuticals group spend its $4bn cash pile to rebuild its weak pipeline of new drugs with new acquisitions.
Informa, the business publisher, said it has rejected a takeover proposal and terminated all discussions. The group announced it was in talks last month with Springer Science + Business Media, whose principal shareholders are Cinven and Candover.
Dairy Crest is said to be on the verge of clinching a deal to buy Uniq's French spreads business, which owns the St Hubert and Le Fleurier brands, for more than €300m.
Bakery chain Greggs saw like-for-like sales in the 19 weeks to 28 October rise 0.2%, slightly better than the performance in first six weeks, but still impacted by unseasonably mild and wet weather, it said.
Tangent Communications has dropped its proposed offer for printer St Ives. "Tangent is disappointed at the response of the board of St Ives and believes that the offer represented a compelling proposition for the shareholders of St Ives," Tangent said in a statement.
Software group Micro Focus is trading ahead of management's expectations and it now expects to report total revenues in the six months to October of $76m - $78m against $72.9m last time.
IT and telecoms consultant Anite perked up as it acquired Norwegian rival Nemo Network Test from Elektrobit Group for a fee that could rise to €97m.
Business software firm Workplace Systems warned that unless second half sales picked up annual results would be lower than expected.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Smith and Nephew (SN.) 505.50p +3.64%
Friends Provident (FP.) 210.25p +3.06%
Resolution (RSL) 637.00p +2.82%
British Energy Group (BGY) 463.00p +2.43%
Experian (EXPN) 578.00p +2.30%
Legal & General (LGEN) 147.00p +1.55%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 1,442.00p +1.48%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,016.00p +1.45%
BSkyB (BSY) 557.50p +1.36%
Drax (DRX) 825.00p +1.29%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Rexam (REX) 552.00p -4.42%
British Airways (BAY) 449.25p -3.39%
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DSG International (DSGI) 209.75p -3.01%
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) 381.00p -2.56%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 773.00p -1.72%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,465.00p -1.48%
Standard Life (SL.) 282.25p -1.48%
Reckitt Benckiser (RB.) 2,275.00p -1.43%
3i (III) 950.50p -1.40%
Rolls-Royce (RR.) 457.00p -1.30%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Warner Estate (WNER) 830.00p +4.80%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 490.00p +3.76%
Aquarius Platinum (AQP) 1,010.00p +3.48%
Wetherspoon (JDW) 608.00p +3.31%
Informa (INF) 557.50p +2.91%
Investec (INVP) 552.00p +2.41%
Debenhams (DEB) 188.50p +2.17%
Venture Production (VPC) 837.50p +2.13%
Carphone Warehouse (CPW) 289.25p +2.03%
Minerva (MNR) 359.50p +1.99%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Enodis (ENO) 188.25p -5.16%
Aga Foodservice (AGA) 390.00p -3.94%
PartyGaming (PRTY) 27.50p -3.51%
EMAP (EMA) 765.50p -3.10%
Soco International (SIA) 1,470.00p -2.84%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 114.00p -2.77%
Burberry (BRBY) 550.00p -2.48%
Kensington Group (KGN) 908.00p -2.26%
Spirent (SPT) 57.75p -2.12%
Gyrus Group (GYG) 358.75p -1.71%
