London close: Footsie ends lower
Footsie has ended the day with strong losses as miners and financials weighed, while a lacklustre US failed to provide any support.
Miners bore the brunt of the selling. Vedanta, BHP Billiton, Kazakhmys and Rio Tinto were all under pressure. Rio's losses are somewhat curbed by a Merrill Lynch upgrade to "buy" with a price target of 3,950p. Copper and gold fell heavily overnight.
Royal Bank of Scotland fell on news of its intention to make a public offer for the Dutch bank ABN Amro. The crunch issue is the sale of LaSalle bank to Bank of America, it said in a statement. Barclays is up on hopes that its offer for ABN may unwind, possibly leaving it vulnerable.
Goldman Sachs has chopped its price target on fund manager Amvescap to $24 from $24.35 in response to Thursday's first quarter numbers, taking the stock lower.
Reckitt Benckiser was also lower despite JP Morgan lifting its price target to 2,950p from 2,600p, following yesterday's bullish first quarter figures.
Life insurer Friends Provident's first quarter life and pension sales met expectations with a 12% rise in new business to £1.5bn up from £1.33bn a year earlier. Its fund management arm F&C reported another drop in assets under management.
Shares in Scottish & Newcastle bucked the gloomy trend as investors continued to cheer the group's update on Thursday. It said it had made an encouraging start to 2007 and expects the full year to meet expectations. Talk of a bid from SABMiller is still doing the rounds.
Media regulator Ofcom said BSkyB's 17.9% stake in ITV raises 'public interest concerns' while the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said further investigation was needed.
Airliner British Airways said it would raise its longhaul fuel surcharge from May as a result of recent trends in the price of oil.
Away from Footsie, Websense has agreed to buy web security specialist SurfControl for 700p in cash valuing the whole company at £201m. The price is a 40% premium to yesterday's close.
National Express has boosted its presence in Spain with the acquisition Continental Auto, which runs a fleet of 860 buses and coaches, for £450m.
Colt Telecom slumped as it reported first-quarter core earnings below market forecasts and said it expected earnings to be flat for the year.
Swiss engineer Sulzer has raised its offer again for Bodycote after having a string of previous bids for the metal treatment group turned down. The new offer is worth 344.5p per share in cash, including any final dividend paid, and values the group overall at about £1.1bn.
Telecoms equipment testing group Spirent jumped on a forecast it will make £21.5m in cost savings in 2008 following a review of its operations.
Car dealer Pendragon has come under pressure after it cautioned that volumes and margins on used cars were lower in the first three months of the year.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Scottish and Newcastle (SCTN) 625.00p +6.75%
ITV (ITV) 118.40p +2.16%
3i (III) 1,148.00p +1.23%
Barclays (BARC) 725.50p +0.97%
Kingfisher (KGF) 270.00p +0.93%
Schroders Nv (SDRC) 1,165.00p +0.87%
SABMiller (SAB) 1,188.00p +0.76%
Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) 833.00p +0.73%
Next (NXT) 2,303.00p +0.66%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 626.00p +0.64%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Legal & General (LGEN) 153.30p -2.42%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,374.00p -2.41%
Amvescap (AVZ) 587.50p -2.16%
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Reckitt Benckiser (RB.) 2,719.00p -2.02%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,139.00p -1.98%
ICAP (IAP) 500.00p -1.86%
BHP Billiton plc (BLT) 1,125.00p -1.75%
BT Group (BT.A) 314.50p -1.72%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,440.00p -1.71%
Unilever (ULVR) 1,574.00p -1.69%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Spirent (SPT) 75.50p +13.11%
Charter (CHTR) 1,032.00p +4.30%
Group 4 Securicor (GFS) 236.25p +3.50%
Bodycote (BOY) 325.00p +3.17%
MyTravel Group 'A' Ord (MT.S) 300.25p +3.00%
Northgate Information Solutions (NIS) 88.75p +2.90%
Berkeley Group Holdings Units (BKG) 1,707.00p +2.89%
First Choice (FCD) 280.00p +2.66%
Detica (DCA) 377.50p +2.17%
Rightmove (RMV) 517.00p +1.97%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Colt Telecom (COLT) 159.25p -7.95%
Pendragon (PDG) 115.00p -7.82%
Assura Group (AGR) 227.25p -4.52%
Soco International (SIA) 1,546.00p -3.44%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 1,081.00p -3.14%
Taylor Woodrow (TWOD) 487.00p -2.84%
Venture Production (VPC) 690.00p -2.82%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,030.00p -2.74%
UK Commerical Property Trust (UKCM) 97.50p -2.50%
Burberry (BRBY) 688.50p -2.34%
