London close: Late rally not enough
Footsie rallied late in the afternoon, but still closed well down on its starting level with no support from the US as Wall Street closed for Thanksgiving Day.
Pub operator Enterprise Inns closed at the top of the pile as the EU relented on plans to allow booze and fags to be bought anywhere in Europe without domestic duty. Drinks groups and cigarette giants Imperial Tobacco and Gallaher all rose on the European Court of Justice ruling.
Water company Kelda topped the blue chip fallers after Citigroup lowered the shares to 'sell' from 'hold', while British Land was also down as HSBC cut the property group to 'neutral' from 'outperform'.
There was better news for ICI though following a Citigroup upgrade to 'hold' from 'sell' following yesterday's sale of Quest for £1.2bn. The shares have now risen nearly 14% over the week.
The life insurers were also in the spotlight as UBS cast an eye over the sector, upgrading shares in Aviva to 'buy' from 'neutral' while the Swiss broker cut shares in Legal & General to 'neutral' from 'buy'.
Goldman Sachs set a "neutral" stance on BSkyB, warning of low returns from its broadband arm and noting that the satellite group needs to keep investing in order to deal with increased competition.
Oil giant Cairn Energy led the risers after raising over $822m from a pre-float private placing of Cairn India shares, valuing the business at around $6.92bn when it floats in Bombay in December.
Further speculation surrounding possible bids and counterbids following this week's offer for Phelps Dodge from Freeport-McMoran got miners excited, with Xstrata and Kazakhmys doing well.
It was another record year for publishing giant Daily Mail & General Trust thanks to growth at its business-to-business and digital divisions, while it has seen signs of a gentle recovery in some sectors of the national advertising market.
Kesa Electricals reported a forecast topping 9.5% hike in like for like sales during the third quarter as flat screen TV sales remained strong, but it did see growth slow towards the end of the quarter.
Online gaming firm 888 eked out slim gains on reports that it is close to signing deals with some of the biggest mobile operators in Europe to offer customers gambling over their handsets.
Engineer Rotork said order intake has remained high with trading continuing in line with expectations.
Car and bicycle products retailer Halfords saw pre-tax profits for the half year rise by 7.9% and said in six weeks from the end of September sales have been to expectations.
Fee charging ATM operator Cardpoint said profits more than doubled last year to £8.3m from £3.5m a year earlier. The news prompted Panmure Gordon to hike its stance to "buy" from "hold".
Marcus Evans, the multimillionaire conference organiser, is ready to bid for the Trinity Mirror's Daily Mirror, but only if its current owners accept £200m less than he offered two years ago, the Times reported.
Furniture retailer Galiform expects full year profit before tax and exceptional items from continuing operations to be in line with market expectations, with business conditions at Howden Joinery unchanged from the first half.
Nord Anglia Education fell from recent highs Thursday after Principle Capital Partners said it has no present intention of making an offer for the nursery owner and education group.
Among the minnows, software group ServicePower took a beating as it warned losses for the year are likely to be materially larger than expected due to delays in closing new software enterprise licence fees and closing its EchoStar satellite dish installation project.
Zenith Hygiene tumbled despite receiving an approach that may or may not lead to an offer for the group as the cleaning products manufacturer warned that full year turnover and earnings per share will miss market forecasts.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 1,205.00p +3.26%
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) 435.00p +2.84%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 1,970.00p +2.71%
Imperial Tobacco (IMT) 1,855.00p +1.81%
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ICAP (IAP) 476.50p +1.49%
Bradford & Bingley (BB.) 460.00p +1.49%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Kelda (KEL) 916.00p -2.29%
British Land (BLND) 1,552.00p -2.08%
Land Securities (LAND) 2,174.00p -2.07%
BAE Systems (BA.) 407.50p -1.69%
Hanson (HNS) 737.50p -1.54%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 419.00p -1.53%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) 677.00p +5.53%
Avis Europe (AVE) 79.75p +4.25%
Galiform (GFRM) 122.25p +4.04%
WH Smith (SMWH) 373.25p +3.75%
Whatman (WHM) 250.00p +3.09%
Shanks (SKS) 217.50p +2.96%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
WS Atkins (ATK) 841.00p -6.35%
Kensington Group (KGN) 770.00p -4.35%
Rightmove (RMV) 310.00p -3.13%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 387.00p -2.95%
Autonomy (AU.) 517.25p -2.91%
Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNN) 200.25p -2.79%.
