London close: Footsie finishes in the red
London retraced most of its earlier losses thanks to a strong start on Wall Street but still ended the day in the red.
Shares in Whitbread were up around 7% as traders reacted to talk that US property investor Starwood Capital was about to launch an offer for the leisure group.
Satellite broadcaster BSkyB was also bucked the weak trend. It posted better than expected subscriber figures for the past three months. Net customer additions totalled 90,000, up 17% year-on-year to 8.582m, with churn down to 12.1%.
BG posted gains after Goldman Sachs upgraded the oil outfit to 'buy' from 'sell' with price target upped to 910p from 680p.
But BP and Shell were out of favour, with the former cut to 'neutral' from 'buy', with target lowered to 580p from 600p, while Shell slips to 'sell' from 'neutral' with target down to 1,900p.
British Airways was prominent among the fallers following the recent spike in crude prices, with investors exiting fuel hungry blue chips.
Drug major AstraZeneca was well ahead Wednesday after Morgan Stanley lifted its view on the shares to 'overweight' from 'equal-weight' and kept its 3,150p price target.
Housebuilder Barratt Developments was little changed after it said "going forward it would be prudent to assume that the cumulative effect of interest rate rises will cause the housing market to tighten." Forward sales as of July 1 totalled £1.4bn, 15% ahead of June 2006.
Meanwhile, fashion group Burberry said revenues were ahead of forecasts in the first quarter at £167.5m, up by 30%, with retail sales up by 25% and wholesale sales up 51%.
Contractor and housebuilder Kier reported it expects to report full year profits ahead of current market expectations and substantially more than last year's result. "Despite a modest reduction in visitors to our sites in the last quarter of the year our reservation levels remained healthy and by the end of the first week of July 2007 we had secured 30% of projected unit sales for the new financial year," it said in a statement.
Tullow Oil confirmed that its recent discovery in Ghana was its largest ever. Output rose to 69,700 barrels per day in the first six months of the year and will rise to over 72,000 barrels on average for the whole of 2007, it added.
Bus and train group Arriva made progress on the back of yesterday's Cross Country rail franchise award, but failed to win anything major in the latest franchise round so far is taking its toll on National Express.
Peru-based precious metals producer Hochschild Mining is on track to deliver on its IPO promises, it said today, with second quarter silver production up 20% on the month before.
Shares in Allergy Therapeutics plunged this morning after the group said trials for its ultra short course allergy vaccine Pollinex Quattro have been put on hold by the Food and Drug Administration to assess the report of a 'rare adverse event'.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Whitbread (WTB) 1,946.00p +7.04%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 700.00p +4.17%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 313.75p +2.78%
BG Group (BG.) 842.00p +2.56%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,695.00p +2.43%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,993.00p +2.25%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,370.00p +2.24%
Unilever (ULVR) 1,683.00p +2.19%
Tesco (TSCO) 422.75p +2.11%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,289.00p +1.82%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Home Retail Group (HOME) 438.75p -2.39%
Shire (SHP) 1,197.00p -1.97%
Schroders Nv (SDRC) 1,134.00p -1.82%
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British Airways (BAY) 418.50p -1.70%
Hammerson (HMSO) 1,367.00p -1.65%
Schroders (SDR) 1,287.00p -1.61%
International Power (IPR) 427.25p -1.50%
Cadbury Schweppes (CBRY) 662.00p -1.49%
Next (NXT) 1,976.00p -1.40%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,107.00p -1.36%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Amec (AMEC) 644.50p +3.95%
Rank Group (RNK) 190.25p +2.84%
QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 196.50p +2.75%
JD Wetherspoon (JDW) 572.50p +2.60%
Aquarius Platinum (AQP) 1,666.00p +2.59%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 4,260.00p +2.40%
Pennon Group (PNN) 623.50p +2.30%
Assura Group (AGR) 197.00p +2.07%
UK Commerical Property Trust (UKCM) 89.75p +1.99%
Greggs (GRG) 5,150.00p +1.94%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
BlueBay Asset Management (BBAY) 456.00p -5.49%
Pendragon (PDG) 73.50p -4.55%
Wincanton (WIN) 409.00p -3.31%
Britvic (BVIC) 362.75p -3.27%
BBA Aviation (BBA) 260.00p -3.26%
Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 805.00p -3.19%
Gyrus Group (GYG) 465.00p -3.18%
Domestic and General (DGG) 1,400.00p -2.98%
Soco International (SIA) 1,940.00p -2.95%
Henderson Group (HGI) 157.25p -2.93%
