London close: Footsie ends on a low
Footsie ended the day on a low with miners occupying most of the bottom places as falling metal prices took their toll, while a weaker start on Wall Street also dampened sentiments.
Copper miner Kazakhmys led the fallers after it said that a flood at its South Mine in the Zhezkazgan complex will hit its copper cathode production this year.
Xstrata went up to 'outperform' from 'neutral' at Credit Suisse with price target upped to 3,800p from 3,500p, although its shares tumbled on lower commodity prices.
Vedanta Resources, Antofagasta, Anglo American and BHP Billiton were also among the worst blue chip performers.
But reports that another two private equity firms are looking at Northern Rock sent its shares higher. Blackstone and Apollo Management both looked at the mortgage lender last week according to the reports, to join JC Flowers and Cerberus Capital that are also said to be considering moves. Alliance & Leicester failed to follow.
Meanwhile, Bear Stearns, which is generally downbeat on the outlook for UK retail banking and the mortgage market especially, lowered Royal Bank of Scotland to 'underperform' from 'outperform'. But it reckons the bank will extract considerable value from the acquisition of some of ABN Amro's assets despite a weakening of its position in the short term. HSBC also saw some of last week's gains disappear.
The Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium said today that its offer to buy ABN Amro has been accepted by about 86% of the Dutch bank's shareholders. "The minimum acceptance condition to the offer has been satisfied," the trio said in a joint statement.
Hedge fund manager Man Group and fund manager Schroders were better though after a strong performance on Wall Street Friday.
In domestic economic news, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed input prices were 3.2% higher in September, far more than the 1.5% predicted, although output prices were up a less-than-expected 2.7%.
Elsewhere, GlaxoSmithKline picked Andrew Witty, currently president of its European pharmaceuticals business, to succeed chief executive Jean-Pierre Garnier from May 2008. Witty was selected from a field of three internal candidates, Glaxo said.
Hikma Pharmaceuticals confirmed it has made a conditional offer to acquire Arab Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Co (APMC) for JD116m, or approximately $163.6m. APMC is a well-established pharmaceutical company that develops and manufactures branded generic products. APMC has more than 85 products registered in 22 countries.
Online polling and research agency YouGov reported a chunky increase in full year profits and said trading at the start of the new financial year has been in line with expectations.
Profit before tax and goodwill for the 12 months ended 31 July jumped 39% to £5.7m on turnover up 51% to £14.3m, both driven by "organic development and acquisitions". "The 2007/08 financial year has started well with trading in line with the board's expectations," said co-founder and CEO Nadhim Zahawi.
Shares in tightly held AIM-listed OneSource soared after the outsourced facilities services company agreed to a takeover by US-based facilities services firm ABM Industries. ABM is to pay $365m (about £179m) in cash for the entire issued share capital of OneSource. The offer price is equivalent to about £48.10 per OneSource share.
Emblaze rallied after its president Eli Reifman increased his stake in the Israeli tech firm to 15.4%, spending almost £11.4m.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Northern Rock (NRK) 172.50p +8.83%
Scottish & Newcastle (SCTN) 622.00p +2.05%
ICAP (IAP) 530.00p +1.73%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,073.00p +1.71%
Aviva (AV.) 769.50p +1.58%
Prudential (PRU) 775.00p +1.57%
Capita Group (CPI) 742.00p +1.44%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,640.00p +1.42%
SABMiller (SAB) 1,466.00p +1.03%
Sage Group (SGE) 249.25p +1.01%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,502.00p -5.89%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,086.00p -4.31%
Xstrata (XTA) 3,212.00p -3.25%
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British Land (BLND) 1,092.00p -2.85%
Alliance & Leicester (AL.) 773.00p -2.64%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,256.00p -2.60%
Punch Taverns (PUB) 1,045.00p -2.34%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,650.00p -2.19%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 287.50p -2.04%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 289.25p -2.03%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Carpetright (CPR) 1,161.00p +4.13%
Northern Foods (NFDS) 104.00p +4.00%
Premier Farnell (PFL) 173.75p +3.27%
PartyGaming (PRTY) 32.00p +3.23%
Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) 403.25p +3.13%
Southern Cross Healthcare Group (SCHE) 556.50p +3.06%
Burren Energy (BUR) 922.00p +2.90%
DS Smith (SMDS) 209.00p +2.70%
JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) 367.75p +2.51%
Henderson Group (HGI) 183.50p +2.23%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Marston's (MARS) 347.25p -5.51%
Bradford & Bingley (BB.) 270.25p -5.18%
Minerva (MNR) 232.25p -4.62%
BlueBay Asset Management (BBAY) 459.25p -4.17%
Greene King (GNK) 921.00p -3.41%
Hays (HAS) 140.00p -3.28%
Croda International (CRDA) 637.50p -3.26%
Hiscox (HSX) 281.00p -3.19%
Regus Group (RGU) 122.00p -3.17%
Halma (HLMA) 213.75p -3.17%
