London close: Footsie struggles as miners tumble
Miners clawed back a little of their earlier losses, helping London finish the session off its worst levels, although the leading index remained stuck below 6,400.
Antofagasta, Lonmin and Vedanta ended the day among the worst affected miners as investors banked profits following the latest rally. Metal prices came back from recent highs.
BP also sank as boss Tony Hayward said third quarter revenue will be "dreadful". He made the comments to employees in Houston, according to a report in the Financial Times. He is also said to have called it the worst performance since the early 1990s.
Mortgage lenders featured with the losers again. Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley joined beleaguered Northern Rock on the way down.
Hedge fund manager Man did better though. It says net management fee income will be up by over 15% on the first six months to September, driven by the growth in funds under management. Net performance fee income will be ahead of the level achieved in the comparable period last year. Funds under management are currently $68bn, up from $61.7bn at end March.
Defensive stand-bys, tobacco stocks and power generators have also managed to stay positive, National Grid, Scottish & Southern Energy and Imperial Tobacco among them.
Delta Two, the Qatari-backed investment vehicle, has entered into formal talks with J Sainsbury's pension fund trustees and its advisers Penfida Partners.
London Stock Exchange reported a very strong start to the year, buoyed by excellent trading performances in all core businesses and remains on course to report an excellent outcome for first half and the financial year as a whole. Nevertheless, the share price fell back as investors took the opportunity to bank the recent gains that were generated by bid speculation.
Telent, what's left of Marconi, has agreed a takeover from specialist pension fund manager Co-Investment No.5 LP Incorporated worth £398m or 600p per share.
Buoyant markets have helped structural steel group Severfield-Rowen report a 34% rise in pre-tax profits for the first half of the year. Pre-tax profit increased to £15.9m for the six month to 30 June compared to £11.8m last time on revenue up by 5% to £137.56m.
Oil companies have been lining up to make announcements and the market has responded by marking down the shares of those who have done so.
Oil explorer Soco is down as it plugged and abandoned the Te Giac Lam 1X (TGL-1X) exploration well, the first well in Prospect 'O' in Block 16-1, offshore Vietnam.
Oil and gas explorer JKX Oil & Gas reported pre-tax profit for the six months to June down at $55.7m from $56.4m, but added that the second period is seen in line with expectations. The results prompted KBC Peel Hunt to cut the shares from 'buy' to 'hold' with a 356p price target.
Oil services group Expro said trading during the six months ending 30 September 2007 has seen a continuation of the positive growth momentum established in prior periods. The group also announced $300m in new contract awards in the first six months, but still the shares headed south.
Shares in accident management group Helphire have lost ground despite the group reporting a 63% jump in pre-tax profits in the year to end-June. The group is looking to expand its operations into other European countries, starting with Spain in October.
Game Group fell back despite moving into profit in the first half of 2007. The computer game retailer said the market for PC and video game products is currently very strong but this statement seemed to benefit fellow computer game retailers WH Smith and HMV more than Game.
Christian Salvesen leapt to a four-month high as the logistics firm confirmed it has received approaches from two parties which may or may not lead to a recommended offer for the company.
FTSE 100 - Risers
National Grid (NG.) 780.00p +2.50%
Man Group (EMG) 534.50p +2.20%
Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) 1,473.00p +1.38%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,063.00p +1.24%
Hammerson (HMSO) 1,140.00p +1.06%
Wolseley (WOS) 816.00p +1.05%
Diageo (DGE) 1,080.00p +0.93%
British Land (BLND) 1,145.00p +0.88%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 779.50p +0.84%
Resolution (RSL) 691.00p +0.80%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,090.00p -6.49%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 789.50p -6.35%
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Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 255.50p -5.72%
Lonmin (LMI) 3,202.00p -5.35%
Northern Rock (NRK) 163.10p -5.17%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 351.00p -4.49%
Kingfisher (KGF) 171.10p -4.47%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 576.50p -3.92%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,449.00p -3.72%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 931.50p -3.67%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Wellstream Holdings (WSM) 770.00p +10.79%
Alfred McAlpine (MCA) 499.50p +2.83%
Signet Group (SIG) 84.25p +2.74%
Drax Group (DRX) 602.00p +2.38%
Abbot Group (ABG) 281.50p +2.36%
Investec (INVP) 492.00p +2.23%
John Wood Group (WG.) 426.50p +1.91%
Britvic (BVIC) 315.75p +1.20%
Misys (MSY) 215.00p +1.18%
New Star Asset Management Group (NSAM) 404.50p +1.06%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Invensys (ISYS) 291.50p -8.12%
Johnston Press (JPR) 312.00p -7.00%
Severfield-Rowen (SFR) 2,105.00p -6.65%
SIG (SHI) 1,018.00p -6.26%
Soco International (SIA) 2,156.00p -6.14%
CSR (CSR) 582.00p -6.13%
Trinity Mirror (TNI) 413.25p -5.92%
Helphire Group (HHR) 376.50p -5.87%
JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) 370.50p -5.61%
Bradford & Bingley (BB.) 279.00p -5.58%
